Between Realities - Book 7 - Dragon Speech
by Dragonsight Elli
Summary: Kitt Ping Yung, student of the mysterious Eridani, master geneticists of the galaxy, had performed a miracle creating the dragons from their smaller cousins... the fire lizards. But what would happen if the people of Pern discovered she had left one final modification incomplete due to her untimely death? Find out what happens when the dragons of Pern gain the ability to speak!


Between Realities - Book VII - Dragon Speech

By Elli Swanson and Dana Sterling

"This book is dedicated, as all our works are, to the late Anne McCaffrey, whose books inspired us to write our own. I don't know whether she'd have approved of some of our changes, but fanfics are fanfics for a reason."

Elli Swanson

Chapter 1 - The New Idea (Elli's P.O.V.)

"Chlorith, you don't seem yourself lately. What's wrong?" I asked her, taking her aside during one of my few breaks as a mental-health healer at Robinton Cove.

_Why didn't Masterhealer Dana give us all the ability to speak?_ Chlorith was almost pleading. _Ever since our realities merged after we got rid of F-Lessa, I've wanted to reassure your mother back at Honshu, but she can't hear dragons. She thinks you're getting in over your head with F-Lessa. She's a murderer and a warmonger and all sorts of evil, but you still have to help her. I'll never tell your mother this, but I think she has it in for Empyrea. When mini Ramoth re-Impressed, she chose her, and F-Lessa was trying to take over her world. She would have stopped at nothing to get it if it weren't for Shandra._

"That's why, dear heart, F-Lessa will be staying in this reality at Robinton Cove where she can't harm anyone."

_She could go after the dragons who live here,_ Chlorith remarked.

"She's on lockdown," I said aloud. "She's not allowed any weapons of any kind. She's not even allowed any sort of sharp objects. I can't even take my cane in when I go see her. Someone has to take me in and out of her room. She could take my cane and bash me or someone else upside the head with it."

_That's your tool to get around though,_ Chlorith observed.

"When I was a patient in a psychiatric hospital, I was not allowed to have my own cane for that specific reason," I remarked. "I had to trail the wall to get around. What if one of the other patients pulled the string out of my cane and strangled themselves with it? Or what if they took my cane away from me and bashed me upside the head with it? Or what if I became angry, got violent, and tried to use my cane as a weapon against someone else?"

_I think security restrictions are too much in a hospital like that,_ Chlorith remarked. _What if the only source of comfort you had was an audiobook?_

"That's precisely my problem," I sighed. "It was fine when I listened to books on tape or CD, but now that all my books are on my phone or on AIVAS, I would not be allowed access to them if I went into the psych ward in a hospital. That's why I try my damnedest to stay out of those places."

_We only have one here on Pern,_ Chlorith reminded me, _and you're there now._

"I work here, dork face," I said aloud, giving her an affectionate pat on the back. "I'll bring it up with Dana that you wanted to talk."

"No need," Dana responded, coming up to us. "I heard her word-for-word. I understand your mother's worry about you dealing with F-Lessa. We don't want your mother having another heart attack, do we?"

"Not to mention that she already has congestive heart failure," I added.

"I can fix that, you know," Dana reminded me.

"Mom could move in with me, Narish, and the children. We do have a guest room she could stay in, and she could supervise the youngsters."

"Doesn't she hate riding a-dragonback?" inquired Dana.

"Oh, yes, she does, especially going _between,_" I replied. "But she hates riding runnerbeasts more."

"I'll see how many of the other dragons want the speech component added to their original programming," she said.

"They could actually contribute to Weyrleader and Starleader meetings," I suggested, "but we'd have to conduct them on the heights, so that'd be inconvenient."

"Plus, we have to keep Empyrea away from F-Lessa," Dana added. "Is she still plotting vengeance on the child for stealing her dragon?"

"Oh yes," I sighed. "Every time I go see her in her room, she's always muttering about killing Empyrea and stealing mini Ramoth back. She thinks she'd be healed if she did that and Ramoth will love her again."

"Not a chance," Dana spoke my exact comment.

"You took the words right out of my mouth!" I exclaimed. "That's Tiffany's prerogative. And speaking of Tiff, where the billy-bob-joe is she?"

She had become one of my chief therapists, though she didn't take you up in her arms and hold you when you wept like I did. She was, however, good at giving people advice, so I had enlisted her help.

"She'd be afraid of F-Lessa, though," I said. "Our role play characters terrified her when they acted out. That was, of course, all pretend, so there's no way in hell I'm letting her work with F-Lessa. All she does is plot vengeance."

"And we can't have a Kolrom heal her in case they bring back the gift," Dana spoke ruefully. "If we do that, she'll be just as evil as before. Some things never change."

"Totally understandable," I said. "Perhaps we should send her to work in the mines of Crom Hold, where she'll be totally away from all dragons. She'd actually be doing something useful, and she'll have less time to brood on revenge."

"What about treating her mental illnesses?" Dana demanded.

"I can't do that if she refuses treatment," I said, resignedly, "and I think she needs to be away from the influence of dragons. None of the dragons like her. They all rumble and growl when you mention her name. Poor mini Ramoth goes into hysterics, and even Empyrea can't calm her down. I'm actually torn here, Dana. I've been trying for weeks and getting nowhere with her. Plus, every time I see her, I think of what she did to Andreas, and I just want to throw her off a cliff somewhere! I'm too compromised. As a dragonrider and a grieving mother, I cannot treat her! I tried, Dana. I can't do it!"

Dana sighed.

"I thought you'd be more compassionate than that, seeing as you got your son back," she said in a disappointed voice.

"It's not just Andreas I think of," I argued. "I think of all the wars she started in the Starworld. I think of all the hostages she kept and killed. You know not all the dolphins survived their ordeal in the lake. I saw her, with Chlorith's eyes, poisoning a calf simply because it had sonar capabilities. I can't treat someone like that! If she had recanted her ways, then perhaps I could try it, but she won't. All she talks about when I'm with her is killing the sentient beings that did this to her, including myself. I don't feel safe when I'm with her!"

"It's true that therapists have to be able to feel safe around their patients," Dana reluctantly agreed. "Okay, we'll do as you suggest, but I want regular reports. If she's killing people in the mines or causing cave-ins, she's coming right back here!"

"Agreed," I said reluctantly because I saw no other way out.

The next day, F-Lessa was shipped off on a boat to the nearest port harbor, where she would mount a runnerbeast and be escorted to Crom Hold to continue work in the mines. I heaved a gusty sigh of relief. I love helping people, but I do have my limits, and helping murderers and abductors is one of those limits. Most mentally ill people weren't murderers though, so I had no problem helping them. All the dragonriders who were still trying to get back on their normal dose of medicine were people I was all too willing to help. They didn't plot revenge against people because they had to stop taking their meds. In fact, there were some who didn't think they needed their meds and would stop taking them all over again before they had nervous collapses.

Then there were those, like Shandra, who honestly didn't need their meds anymore, because I'd eliminated the reason they needed them in the first place. Shandra had thought she had accidentally killed Empyrea, but Chlorith and I had saved her from the war zone while Shandra was trying to blast us out of her way. She had betrayed F-Lessa so that the Aviani could live in peace on their own world and not have to endure capture and slaughter at F-Lessa's hands. She didn't know who was, and who was not, on her side, so she didn't know if the larger queen dragon she'd seen was friend or foe. She had assumed it was mini Ramoth because of her size. Mini Ramoth was the largest dragon on Pern, just like her counterpart in this reality.

I could hear the dragons in conference as I turned to go back into the teaching hospital. The ship had sailed right into Robinton Cove to pick up F-Lessa, so she wouldn't have to ride a dragon. They were taking several others North as well, but none of them had needed to be picked up at Robinton Cove, so Rampesi had had to make a special trip for F-Lessa. Most Holders and Craftmasters did not know about recent events, so there was no hostility radiating from him as F-Lessa reluctantly boarded the ship.

_Why did they program speech into the dolphins but not us?_ Chlorith was demanding in a stentorian voice. _We could have our pick of anyone, not just people with telepathic abilities._

_It's better during Threadfall,_ big Ramoth commented.

_But the last Pass we'll ever see is almost over!_ Chlorith protested.

_What if you wanted to have a private conversation with your rider but they were far away?_ Ruth wanted to know.

_We'd use our telepathy in both situations, _Chlorith conceded, _but wouldn't it be good to have both, like our riders do?_

There was a long silence. Then big Ramoth said, _I could wake Lessa up better that way._

_My point exactly!_ said Chlorith excitedly. _Sometimes, Elli thinks she's dreaming when I try to wake her up, so she rolls over and goes right back to sleep. When I need her, I need her right away! Telepathy's a very useful tool, but speech is even better!_

"Are you hearing this, Dana?" I asked, amused.

"As if I could miss it," she smiled, equally amused. "It would also give them a second means to communicate with the dolphins, as well. Okay, I'm sold!"

_If any dragon wants speech augmentation, come here!_ she called telepathically.

Suddenly, the shore was full of dragons. It looked as though every dragon on Pern had shown up. Dana sat down at her computer, tapped a few sequences of keys, then hurried to the dragons who were waiting. Not surprisingly, her own lifemate, Tarnaa, was first in line. She injected dragon after dragon in the wing where they had the strongest veins, and it wasn't long before their thanks were heard all over the cove. I expected them to roar when they spoke out loud, but their voices came out sounding exactly as they had when they used telepathy.

"Now everyone can hear our singing!" were Chlorith's first words. "We'll put the harpers to shame! Perhaps we can become dragon harpers!"

"I won't need a sonar tape player to record you anymore!" I told my excited queen. "I can use a regular tape recorder unless you're using your telepathy."

"What I did will probably give your descendants speech, as well," Dana advised us. "Just so you're aware of that."

"I won't have any descendants," Ruth commented.

"Where are all your riders?" Dana wanted to know.

"We wanted to surprise them," all the dragons of Pern chorused in unison.

"That won't be possible with your telepathic links," I smiled.

"At least we won't have to play this ridiculous game of telephone anymore," complained Chlorith. "I always had to tell Elli to tell someone else something. Now I can speak aloud to those who couldn't otherwise hear me."

"The Skolrom won't like that if we give the Star Dragons the same treatment," said Dana.

"They will if they have to speak with human riders who can't hear their dragons," Chlorith protested.

"Let's see if they even want this treatment, first," Dana remarked. "The rest of you, return to your riders. I'll take the components to the Starworld and see if mini Ramoth has convinced any of her cohorts that they should get it, as well."

Chapter 2 – Pern's Own Justice (Dana's P.O.V.)

"What's a Pandora's Box?" Empyrea wondered, standing beside mini Ramoth as I was setting up my equipment for the voice augmentation procedure.

"When someone opens Pandora's box," I chuckled, doing my best to explain the ancient Earth mythology behind the expression, "they do something that causes a lot of problems to appear that did not exist or were not known about before."

"Do you believe this is causing a lot of problems?" mini Ramoth wondered.

Chuckling, I told them, "I just hadn't anticipated how popular this procedure would be among dragonkind when I first gave you the gift, my friend."

"Do you regret it?" Shandra asked, her protective hand resting on Empyrea's shoulder.

"Too late now to regret it!" I chuckled, patting mini Ramoth on the side. "Besides, this particular aspect of Kitt Ping's bioengineering was already in place. It just never got implemented…"

"Due to the crushing imperatives of surviving Threadfall," Elli concluded as she helped me finish setting up my gear.

"Shards, where do we start?" I laughingly complained, waving my hand in resignation at the sea of dragons gathered around us as far as the eye could see!

In this reality, I turned the procedure into a two-step process. Each dragon would come forward with their rider. The dragon would then ask their rider to allow the procedure to be done. If the rider agreed, the augmentation procedure was implemented, the dragon then thanking their rider aloud, using their new voice for the first time.

At first, I was worried that some of the riders wouldn't want their dragons to undergo the procedure, but as time passed, dragons asked riders and riders gave their permission. Not a one refused their dragon's request! And, as a final celebration of this new ability, Chlorith led her dragon chorus in a boisterous rendition of Menolly's "Fire Lizard Song". Those in attendance received it well, cheers and applause filling the air!

Inevitably, we were brought back down to Earth by more somber matters, especially when it concerned a former Starwoman. Elli was worried about the Skolrom healing abilities accidentally restoring F-Lessa's telepathic ability, which is why she had avoided getting them to try and heal the bereft madwoman. But the Eridani were very specific about their protocols. Once the ability was removed, it could never be restored, not even by the Eridani themselves. F-Lessa would forevermore be without the precious jewel that was dragonthought.

I had hoped that by removing that ability from F-Lessa, it would put an end to her insane plans for domination. That seemed to be an apt description of her state of mind. Even stripped of that remarkable gift, F-Lessa only seemed to slide further toward the dark side, her inner rage and fury only growing. Faced with that seemingly insurmountable obstacle, Elli had been forced to abandon her attempts at reasoning with the former Starwoman.

With no hope of getting through the all-consuming hatred the woman manifested, Elli had no choice but to consign her to the coal mines of Crom where it was hoped she would be far enough removed from the dragons that she would no longer pursue her mad ambitions.

Unfortunately, even several dragonlengths beneath the surface of Pern, F-Lessa continued to fume and rage, planning her revenge against those who had taken from her what she believed was her rightful destiny… to rule the galaxy. She had tried to entice the other prisoners in the mine to side with her, to help her in her mad quest. Curiously enough, the other prisoners, once hearing her plans, collectively chose to shun the former Starwoman, cutting her off from the one last contact she had with any humans.

This only served to infuriate F-Lessa even more, to the point where she started seeking revenge against her fellow prisoners. Secretly, she went around the lower caverns of the mine, rigging hidden deadfalls. Those in charge of the mines never suspected the truth, even after the fatalities continued to mount.

When I first heard about the deaths in the mines, I had initially put it down to accidental causes.

_She could be behind it_, mini Ramoth remarked one day as I was reviewing one of the autopsy reports. _I heard from some of the riders who have visited other prisoners at the mine. They reported that the prisoners had all shunned her, refusing to take part in her plans._

"It seems we both failed her, Ramoth," I sighed, putting the report away. "I had hoped that removing her telepathic ability would be enough to put an end to her ambitions. Looks like I was wrong."

_We both tried, my friend,_ mini Ramoth replied. _No one can fault us for that._

What none of us suspected was that Pern had its own ways of restoring balance. One afternoon in the mines, another of F-Lessa's 'enemies' fell victim to the latest of her cleverly concealed deadfalls. But that action had its own unforeseen consequence. The crushing force of the deadfall, while sufficient to instantly kill the hapless victim, was hard enough to trigger a cave-in, trapping the former Starwoman deep in the bowels of the mine.

But that didn't deter the mad woman. She had, unknown to the staff at the mine, seen a cursory scan of the subterranean rock formations in a new region that was being opened up in the mine. The scan had revealed a rather large chamber in the strata nearby, less than a meter away through the rock wall of the passage F-Lessa was in. The chamber was also about two meters away from a secondary passageway located on the far side of the strata void.

Grabbing a pick from the dead prisoner, F-Lessa went searching for the spot indicated on the scan. When she found it, she started swinging the pick with a vengeance, knocking away great chunks of rock. As she approached a point where a breakthrough seemed imminent, she swung the pick extra hard, burying the tool right up to the handle. Almost instantly, the pick was thrown backwards, narrowly missing F-Lessa, propelled with some force by the pressurized gas contained in the strata void… gas that blew right back into her face.

Volcanic rock, by the nature of its origin, can contain pockets of all manner of gases the planet produces in that inferno at its molten core. Many of them are poisonous and / or explosive by nature. One, for example, is carbon monoxide, undetectable and lethal at very small amounts. Another is methane, explosive at relatively low fuel to air mixture ratios. And what was in the void F-Lessa had ruptured? Hydrogen sulfide, a gas that is both toxic and explosive. With concentrations around 100 parts per million (PPM), it is considered immediately dangerous to life and health. Concentrations above 700 PPM can result in rapid unconsciousness, "knockdown" or immediate collapse within 1 to 2 breaths. Over 1000 PPM and death is almost instantaneous. The pressurized gas from that rupture had blown right into F-Lessa's face. Her death, unlike those of her victims, was mercifully swift.

It didn't take long for word to reach us. Empyrea and mini Ramoth brought us the news themselves back at Robinton Cove in our reality; cheers erupting from the staff around us.

"Belay that!" I exploded, my hands making a cutting motion through the air.

"You can't honestly tell me you're defending that witch?!" Elli demanded.

"This is a place of hope and healing," I muttered, a lone tear sliding down my cheek. "All life is precious… even hers. You dishonor yourselves and the memory of Master Robinton by celebrating the death of another sentient being. If you cannot abide that… then you have my permission… and my blessing… to leave."

For several long minutes, there was nothing but silence. Then,…

"I'm staying, Lifemate," Tarnaa spoke, rubbing her muzzle against my tear-stained cheek.

"So are we," Ryeena added, giving me a hug as Sylene added her own muzzle rub.

"So what say the rest of you?" Moreta demanded, laying her gentle hand on my shoulder, her own sign that she would stay.

There were many personal apologies and expressions of regret. To a person, however, every member of the hospital staff affirmed their desire to remain at the hospital.

"Dana, I…" Elli began, but my hand on her lips brought instant silence.

"It's okay," I whispered, giving her a gentle hug.

"If you'll still have Chlorith and I," she spoke, returning the hug, "we'll stay, too."

"Thanks, Elli," I sighed, smiling slightly. "Wouldn't be the same around here without you!"

"All right, fun's over!" Moreta imperiously ordered, waving for the crowd to disperse. "Back to work!"

Turning to Elli and me, chuckling, she added, "And that means you, too!"

"Yes, Ma'am!" we chimed as one.

Chapter 3 - Healing Ramoth (Elli's P.O.V.)

Now that F-Lessa was dead, it was no longer imperative that Empyrea stay in her own reality. Even though mini Ramoth was back among the living, Empyrea couldn't very well usurp Ky as Senior Starwoman of Benden Starhold. She had Impressed mini Ramoth at the tender age of five, though she seemed a lot more mature than most children her age. The Aviani were telepaths like the Skolrom, but they didn't have the other Kolrom abilities, the camouflaging, the TK, or the teleportation. Empyrea could hear any dragon, but she didn't know if any of the rest of her race could. She also wasn't sure if anyone from her race would want to reciprocate F-Lessa's wish to colonize Pern. They were all afraid of dragons, as F-Lessa had used them as weapons against them. They hadn't flamed them down, but they had been the vehicles that had propelled the Pernese soldiers who had wielded blasters. Empyrea still had nightmares about the dragon-riding enemies. It didn't help that she had been rescued by a dragon. She had nearly died on the trip _between_.

Shandra had stayed behind at Robinton Cove, as she was also a medic in her own right, but Empyrea had had to go back to Benden during F-Lessa's stay in the mines of Crom. However, she had had so many flashbacks and nightmares that Ky sent her and mini Ramoth back to Robinton Cove for treatment. When I heard the little girl explaining what F-Lessa had ordered her riders to do in graphic detail, I knew I had a challenge ahead of me. Ironically, the only dragon she'd go near was mini Ramoth. It was ironic, because she would Impress the dragon who had been at the root of it all. I knew Ramoth had nothing to do with plotting revenge on Empyrea's people, but how could a five-year-old make that distinction? How could a five-year-old Impress a dragon, anyway, not the least of which, a dragon who had already been Impressed and renounced her first choice of rider? That had never happened before in 2500 turns of dragon history in either of the two realities.

I knew mini Ramoth was suffering, but she never let on. Until one night, I was awakened from a deep sleep brought on by pregnancy fatigue by a horrible, quavery moan. It reminded me of the noises my Earth friend Mandi had made when she cried. It was a mixture between a dragon's keen and a human's wail. I had never heard anything like it before.

"What is that?" I asked sleepily.

"I think we need 'Keymon's Song,'" I heard Chlorith say from the heights.

Though her new speaking voice was remarkably like mine, it carried across the entire compound. All the dragons began to sing the haunting melody, both telepathically and out loud, but for once, it did no good. The keening/wailing only increased in volume as well as intensity. I was surprised Seeoru hadn't teleported from hers and Br'an's house across the way from mine and G'narish's. The telepathic wailing was enough to give me goosebumps.

I cautiously crept out of bed and went out the door. The dragons could not fit inside our houses, so they had to sleep in wooden structures that were added to the houses but separated by screen doors. Chlorith was on the heights of the hospital building, still singing 'Keymon's Song,' but it was still not working its magic. Gyarmath was with her, singing his famous tenor harmony. I went outside, following the sound of the dragon weeping. I stopped when Chlorith showed me Empyrea stroking the dragon's back in a shaky, scared fashion.

"I'll handle this," I said gently. "You go back to bed. It's very late at night, and you're only five years old."

"But it's my dragon who's crying," she protested vehemently.

"I'm the mental health specialist," I argued. "A five-year-old wouldn't understand her anguish."

"I do so!" argued Empyrea. "She's sad because she couldn't change F-Lessa. She chose her because she thought she could change her, and she failed epically!"

"Wow!" I breathed, amazed by her choice of words as well as her complete understanding of the situation.

"That's why she's the only dragon I'm not afraid of," Empyrea continued. "None of the other dragons ever regretted their choice of rider. All the other riders tried to kill me, too."

"Only because F-Lessa forced them to," I said gently. "War is not the choice of the soldiers, but of the government who declares it. They force the soldiers to go out and kill each other and any civilians that might get in their way. F-Lessa took an exploration team out to survey your world, saw it was already inhabited, and freaked out! She liked it so much she wanted it to be hers, so she ordered all her riders to kill every last one of the Aviani just for existing. Now mini Ramoth sees you and how precious you are, and she mourns the members of your race that F-Lessa murdered."

"Then maybe seeing me isn't helping her right now?" asked Empyrea plaintively.

"Perhaps not, sweetie. Go back to bed, and I'll see what I can do for her tonight. She might have to get treatment like you're getting right now."

Empyrea gave mini Ramoth's eye ridge one last caress, then sadly took flight back to her house. I began stroking mini Ramoth's back, then knelt down and took her head in my arms.

"Shh, shh," I told her soothingly. "Go ahead and cry. None of this is your fault. She had the gift of dragonspeech, and you thought Impression would change her, but, sadly, it didn't. She's gone now where she can't hurt anyone. You're free now. You won't have to fly around while your rider kills sentients. I'm pretty sure Empyrea won't do that."

"I killed her parents!" mini Ramoth moaned aloud. "I was flying F-Lessa around when she blasted them to smithereens! They were holding Empyrea but she took flight at the sight of us. Shandra came to her rescue. Then Chlorith saved her, but if she hadn't taken flight, I'd've been responsible for yet another death!"

"You were just the vehicle she used to get around," I explained. "You were not the cause of their deaths. She was. She didn't make dragons flame. She used her blaster which she could've held in one hand. You don't provide the blaster with flames. It's an electronic charge, or so I've been led to believe."

Silently, I thought this dragon probably has severe PTSD along with many other conditions brought on by Impressing F-Lessa.

"The dragon is supposed to mirror the rider!" sobbed mini Ramoth.

"In rare cases, they don't," I explained, "and that's okay. Look at Jaxom and Ruth. They don't always mirror each other. Jaxom's more cautious and Ruth's more adventurous. You have all the love and compassion in the multiverse in you, whereas F-Lessa was a tyrant. None of this is your fault, Ramoth. None of what she did was your choice. The only times you ever had a ruthless streak in you was during your mating flights, and that's with every female dragon, whether she be a green or a queen."

I began to stroke her soft, wedge-shaped head, so much smaller than my own dragon's. Suddenly, I felt a tingling in my hands. I wanted to stop until the tingling feeling passed, but the rhythm of my stroking only became more soothing than it had been. Why couldn't I stop? The tingling was warm, not painful, and it spread all through my body as I worked. I felt power radiating from my head and heart. It was as though the love and acceptance I felt for her was flowing out through my hands as I rubbed her head. It sank onto my shoulder which hurt mightily, as she was still at least four times the size of a normal human, but I still couldn't let her go. I finally ended by encircling her shoulders with my arms, which tingled with the same warmth as my hands had. Slowly, gradually, her keens died down, and she fell asleep on my shoulder. The tingling persisted for a few more minutes, then it also subsided.

What was going on? What had just happened? How had I done it? I thought I'd better ask Dana how I'd done it. She was the expert on the telepathic abilities.

It was then that I noticed the crowd around me. They had all been distressed by mini Ramoth's keens and had all come to see what they could do to help.

"Dana?" I asked tentatively. "What's going on? What just happened? What have I done?"

"If I didn't know better," Dana replied, coming up to me, "I'd say you healed her the Kolrom way."

"But even Seeoru can't heal dragons!" I argued, "and I've had limited contact with the Skolrom. I've only ever known them for a couple of months."

"It only takes one mental contact, Elli," Seeoru reminded me. "You're a dragonhealer now."

"But you can't heal dragons," I protested.

"Only because I've never tried," Seeoru commented. "I was always too afraid to. If mini Ramoth hadn't stopped her keening soon, I would've come over to see what I could do to help, but you had it under control."

"I can't believe 'Keymon's Song' didn't work," Chlorith complained, swooping down to join us.

She cast a wing around mini Ramoth, seeming to engulf her in a tight embrace.

"Let her sleep," I advised her. "She's exhausted from all the weeping."

"No more regrets, little one?" Chlorith somehow managed to whisper.

_No more regrets, you giant_, mini Ramoth quipped sleepily, too tired to use human speech.

I gently eased myself out from under her weight and walked back toward my own house. I hadn't brought my cane, as I was too busy wondering what all the wailing was to think about it, but I still found my way by retracing my steps. G'narish met me at the door.

"Everything all right?" he asked.

"It is now," I replied, wondering how to broach it to him that I could heal people like the Skolrom.

"What did you do?" he asked. "I could feel something going on in you. Ever since we met the Skolrom, I could sense you."

_Can you hear me now?_ I asked telepathically.

_Loud and clear_, answered Chlorith.

_Not you, G'narish,_ I cried with mock exasperation.

_I heard the whole exchange_, G'narish spoke in my head.

"Seeoru did say first mental contact with a Kolrom gave you their abilities," I remarked.

G'narish threw his arms around me, lifted me up, and carried me back to bed. We fell asleep in each other's arms and did not wake up until well into the day, when I knew we had to account for ourselves and my night's adventure with mini Ramoth.

Chapter 4 – Concordant Complications (Dana's P.O.V.)

It still seemed hard to believe. In full view of everyone who had been there, Elli had demonstrated the Kolrom ability to heal! As impossible as it sounded, was it simply being in the presence of a Kolrom that allowed someone to temporarily inherit their healing abilities?

"As simple as that, Dana," she remarked, coming into my office at Robinton Cove.

"Shards, Seeoru, I'm sorry about that!" I apologized, chuckling as I bade her take a seat. "Was I broadcasting that much?"

"For the average Kolrom, no," she assured me. "Still, there are a few among us who are sensitive telepaths."

"It is certainly a handy gift… for a healer, that is," I said, nodding. "How is Lineth today? No problems making the trans-dimensional jumps?"

_Easy-peasy!_ Seeoru's dragon replied, making both of us laugh.

"And what about you, Dana?" Seeoru wondered, leaning closer. "You've been around the Skolrom, including me. And you were in direct physical contact with Katie's little sister. Have you manifested any signs of the healing power?"

"Didn't give it much thought, actually," I confessed. "I'm so used to the med equipment and the modern procedures that rely on that equipment that it actually never crossed my mind."

"A being who can teleport like a dragon," Seeoru remarked, ticking off the points on her fingers, "who can communicate with dragons telepathically, and who is a proven and powerful contact empath. Are you sure you're not part-Kolrom?"

_Could our races, as disparate as we are,_ I silently broadcast, _somewhere along the line have had a common ancestor?_

Seeoru smiled. _Wouldn't that be something, eh?_

"Dana?" Kaatee interrupted, poking her head through the door.

"What's up, Katie?" I asked, rising from my desk.

"Something's wrong with Zeeu," she wept, clearly upset. "She's not responding to treatment!"

Katie's sister… the one F-Lessa had kept prisoner, forcing Katie to spy on her own people.

I ran down the hall to the special intensive care ward we had set up for the Skolrom. Moreta and Ryeena were there, their collective brows frowning with worry.

"What's the sitch?" I asked, coming up to Zeeu's med pod.

"We don't know!" Moreta whispered, clearly pained by this development. "The Skolrom healing isn't working! Her vital signs are beginning to slip."

"Dana, what're we going to do?" Ryeena sobbed, clinging to my arm.

My first focus was the main med scanner screen. Vital signs were strong but slowly weakening. And something else wasn't adding up.

"Hold on a sec!" I exclaimed, whipping out my own med scanner.

"What is it?" Moreta wondered.

Tweaking the controls to a much finer life signs range, I discovered something that sent chills up my spine. "She doesn't have a symbiote!"

"What?!" Seeoru exclaimed, clearly disbelieving.

"They can't survive without their symbiote!" Ryeena exclaimed. "Dana, what do we do?"

"Seeoru, where does the symbiote come from?" I asked, turning to our Kolrom friend. "Can she be given another one?"

"No," Seeoru whimpered, tears pouring down her face. "The Skolrom and our symbiotes are joined from the moment of our births. We only have one our entire lives! If one member of the pair dies, so does the other!"

"Zeeu!" Kaatee howled, picking her fragile sister up in her trembling arms. "No, don't leave me!"

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Ryeena sobbed, looking at me.

Seeoru laid her hand on my shoulder.

"Let me have her, Katie," I directed, reaching my arms out.

Sobbing forlornly, she turned, laying her sister in my arms. I'm not sure what made me do it, but I walked over to an empty table and laid Zeeu down on top of it. Something was happening to me, a strange sort of energy filling my being. Without thinking, I laid one hand on Zeeu's forehead, the other over her heart. And then, I started singing "Keymon's Song". It just seemed like the right thing to do. As I did, I was dimly aware of that energy I had felt earlier channeling itself through my two hands, somehow flowing into little Zeeu's fragile form.

"Dana!" Moreta exclaimed, suddenly excited by something. "Her vitals are growing stronger! I can't believe it!"

"Dana, don't stop!" Ryeena urged, laying her own hands on top of mine.

I didn't. I'm not sure how I knew, but I could tell Zeeu was getting stronger. Gradually I became aware of the sound of someone's med scanner somewhere nearby.

As the last verse of "Keymon's Song" faded into the background, I lifted my hands, staggering backwards slightly.

"What… Katie… is she…" I managed to stammer, Moreta on one side, Seeoru on the other.

But no one was moving, the room eerily still. It was as if we had been frozen in time! And, then, I realized I could still move as I looked around. Even more surprising, there was another face in the room, one that hadn't been there before!

"I know you!" I whispered, awe filling my voice.

The strange being nodded, smiling.

"From the psionics screening!" I gasped, making the connection. "You were one of the beings on the review panel!"

The stranger's smile grew broader.

"Concordantrix Zigrill!" I exclaimed, hands covering my mouth. "Of the Eridani!"

"It is good to see you again, child!" the female elder Eridani remarked, coming up to take my hands.

"I don't understand," I muttered, glancing around. "What happened? Why are you here?"

"To see how you've been doing," Zigrill replied. "All those belgan ago, back at the Academy, even though the other psionics screeners didn't find any potential in you, our Eridani protocols genetics screening indicated you would manifest a strong, focused bond to Kitt Ping's creations."

"What?!" I stammered.

"Kitt Ping was one of our finest human students," Zigrill commented, patting my hands. "The dragons are magnificent creations… versatile, robust, dedicated. While we prefer to avoid altering ecosystems if at all possible, when we do make an alteration, a sacred obligation is produced to watch over the alteration and protect it for, not only the Eridani who performed the alteration, but their bloodline for thousands of generations."

"Ancestors!" I hissed, my mind reeling from this revelation.

"Which is why I'm here now," Zigrill said, looking straight at me.

"I don't understand," I whispered, shaking my head.

"The Eridani protocols you used on that human," Zigrill calmly spoke, her eyes never leaving mine, "and the voice augmentation you employed on that first dragon."

"Shards and Shells!" I hissed. "Mini Ramoth and F-Lessa!"

Zigrill nodded.

"As you surmised, Kitt Ping had been on the verge of employing that particular protocol right before Thread began falling on Pern," Zigrill continued. "And while others in the Eridani Concordance were concerned by your use of the psionics removal protocol on that Lessa, we all agreed the procedure was much more humane than simple execution and that you were justified in your actions."

So overcome with relief was I by this news, I fell to my knees before Concordantrix Zigrill, tears pouring from my eyes.

"Do not weep so, child," Zigrill spoke, lifting my chin so that our eyes would meet. "You have done well, in spite of no formal Eridani training. I am here to fill that oversight."

"I don't understand," I whispered, tears continuing to fall as Zigrill helped me to my feet.

"You will in a moment," Zigrill informed me, smiling as she gently laid her hand on my forehead.

Knowledge, broad and detailed, flooded my mind, feeling almost as though my head was going to explode. When I realized what Concordantrix Zigrill was doing, I steadied myself, calling upon every ounce of psionics training I had ever received at the Star Service Academy. She was filling my mind with everything she knew about the Eridani protocols, teaching me all the things Kitt Ping had been shown!

When she finally broke her mental connection, I staggered backwards, breathing hard from the effort to absorb so much knowledge. I whirled, staring in the direction of Kaatee's sister, Zeeu, lying motionless on the table.

"That was you helping me!" I realized, recognizing the protocol from her recent mental infusion. "You were guiding my hands, my skills, helping me save Kaatee's sister!"

Zigrill nodded, smiling. "Farewell, my student. Make me proud!"

"Wait!"

Concordantrix Zigrill vanished in a swirl of displacement effects. Frozen time started moving again, others in the now mobile room reacting to my cry.

"Dana, what's wrong?" Seeoru wondered, coming up beside me.

"Not a thing, my friend," I replied, my voice quavering a bit in awe at what I'd been given.

"Zeeu?" Kaatee begged, tugging on my arm.

"Life signs are strong," Moreta reported, double-checking the med scanner readings. "Without her symbiote, she should be dying! What did you do?"

"I had help," I replied, grinning from ear-to-ear, "from an old and unexpected friend."

"But what did you do?" Ryeena asked, puzzled by this development.

"Being around F-Lessa and the other humans she came in contact with," I explained, double-checking the scanner's findings, "Zeeu had assumed a human form. Her symbiote must've reacted badly to the drugs F-Lessa had given her host, causing the symbiote to die while Zeeu was still in human form. Without the symbiote to trigger the transformation back to Kolrom, the only way to save Zeeu was to make her fully human, right down to her genetic makeup."

"You turned her into a human?!" Moreta exclaimed, clearly disbelieving.

"How?" Seeoru asked.

"With the help of my old and venerable friend," I replied, meeting Seeoru's gaze. "Concordantrix Zigrill of the Eridani!"

"The Eridani?!" Kaatee gasped.

"As I was carrying Zeeu over to the table," I explained, "I felt a strange surge of power running through me. Zigrill was the source, channeling the power I needed into my form so that I could employ the Eridani protocol she showed me, allowing me to rewrite Zeeu's genetic code, making her totally human and saving her life."

Meeting Kaatee's pained expression, I added, "I wish there had been some other way to save her, but without a replacement symbiote, I had no choice."

Kaatee threw her arms around my neck, hugging me tightly. "You saved her life! That's all that matters! Thank you!"

A quiet call interrupted us. "Kaatee?"

"Zeeu?" she gasped, hurrying to take her sister's extended hand.

"Where…"

"You're safe!" Kaatee whispered, hugging her sister's hand to her cheek.

"I feel so strange," Zeeu mumbled, glancing around the room.

Kaatee gasped, hands covering her mouth. Other in the room quickly followed suit, especially when they saw Zeeu's eyes.

Moreta and Ryeena both turned to me.

"Her eyes!" Moreta hissed.

"They look just like yours!" Ryeena chimed in, speaking directly to me.

"But why?" Seeoru begged.

"Most humans can't speak to dragons or teleport like they do," I explained, gently taking Zeeu's other hand, "unlike the Skolrom. With Zigrill's help, I duplicated my own genetic structure, giving Zeeu the same abilities I have… to hear dragons and to go _between_. It's not nearly as extensive as the gifts the Skolrom possess, but at least it gets her a little closer to what she used to have."

_Thank you_, Zeeu silently spoke, smiling as she squeezed my hand.

_You're welcome_, I silently replied, returning the squeeze.

"Seeoru, will she be alright living among you?" I asked.

"But… I want to stay here!" Zeeu protested, tugging on my hand. "Here… with you!"

"Zeeu,…"

_I can hear the dragons!_

_There are dragons in your reality, too!_ I argued.

"Dana, please!" Zeeu begged, squeezing my hand tightly.

"You know," Seeoru remarked, smiling at me from the other side of the table, "since Zeeu now has the same genetic makeup as you, in some ways, you're like her Rehtom now."

"Her what?!" Elli stammered.

"I get what you're saying," Tiffany chimed in. "Just as a child inherits part of her genetic coding from her parents…"

"Dana is kind of like Zeeu's mother now!" Ariana exclaimed, giving Elli a hug.

"That is so cool!" Oriana responded, adding her own hug to Elli.

"Her…"

"Please?" Zeeu pleaded, tears forming in her very human eyes.

_If she stays with us here,_ Tarnaa remarked, peering in through a window, _she might even Impress a dragon of her own one day!_

_Seeoru?_

_She is human now,_ our Kolrom friend observed. _And you were the one who saved her life…_

_Please?_ Zeeu repeated, the depth of her feeling too strong to ignore.

"But what about your own family?" I asked, torn by my own uncertainty. "What about your sister, Kaatee?"

"Seeoru and I can always visit the two of you here," Kaatee responded. "Like Lineth said…"

_Easy-peasy!_ Seeoru's queen chimed in.

One final look at her dragon eyes melted my heart.

"Alright, Zeeu, if that's what you want," I whispered, hugging her tightly. "Welcome home!"

Cheers and applause exploded around us as I welcomed a new addition to my family. The knowledge and skills Concordantrix Zigrill shared with me would go a long way toward expanding the capabilities of Robinton Cove. But it brought to mind a quote I'd once heard… With great power comes great responsibility! Now only Time would prove if I was up to the challenge.

Chapter 5 - A Momentous Decision (Elli's P.O.V.)

With Dana's new abilities, healing took a completely new direction. My healing of mini Ramoth was all over social media by the time a sevenday had passed. No one had thought to film Dana's miraculous healing of Zeeu, but someone had snuck behind me with their phone unbeknownst to me and recorded the miraculous event of mini Ramoth's healing. Now all Pern knew that I had Kolrom capabilities, and people were coming from all over the world to be healed. I felt like Jesus, who must've felt overwhelmed with so many people crowding around him all the time. That man had had no privacy.

Meanwhile, Dana was besieged with requests to change people's genetic makeup so that they didn't look so much like family members with whom they were having quarrels. Naturally, Dana refused all those requests. What she had done for Zeeu was an emergency procedure, only to be done in matters of life and death. If she hadn't done it, Zeeu would have perished. People began to doubt her abilities because she wouldn't perform them. She had been given the power to heal from contact with the Skolrom, and once you've received those abilities, they were permanent. You could not telepathically speak to those who had never been in contact with the Skolrom, but you could speak to anyone who had. Therefore, Dana, Tiffany, Kara, Ryeena, Ky, Lara, and Moreta all stopped relying on our dragons to relay messages to each other.

Mom was afraid of her telepathy, so we still texted her, because she only used fire-lizards in extreme emergencies, (meaning when her phone was dead and she had to talk to someone who wasn't in her vicinity right away.). She wasn't a fan of small flying creatures who were living in her house without cages. Of course, you couldn't cage a fire-lizard, so we kept Elizabeth and Marie-Antoinette with us at all times, unless they were off delivering messages. I wished Zigrill had bestowed her abilities on all of us, including the Skolrom, because we could create new creatures from them, but on the other hand, I really didn't like playing God. I didn't see what Dana had done as playing God but being able to create beings from scratch as Kit Ping had done was really cutting it fine. I didn't begrudge what she had done; it was for emergency purposes, and besides, if she hadn't created the dragons, I would not have had Chlorith! Dana could, however, alter genetic makeups enough to get rid of congenital conditions, such as my blindness. I rejected her offer to get rid of it, though, as I had lived with it all my life, and I didn't know anything else. The sight I had now was borrowed and didn't work if Chlorith was not in the vicinity. It worked best when she was mating, because then I was completely linked to her. If we weren't in mental contact it did not work. I often wondered how F'Rangle and Colinath were doing, but F'rangle had chosen to return to Benden after he failed to mate with Tiffany last year. Claranth was quicker off the mark than Colinath despite the age difference. I rather thought Colinath's lack of sight was a major factor, as he always lost his way during mating flights. I thought he could use the healing, as blindness was much more detrimental to a dragon than it is to a human. Humans could learn to adapt; dragons could not.

When I suggested it to Dana, she was all for it, but she wasn't sure if Colinath would be. He was also used to his blindness, but I heard from Tiffany that he was also very bitter about it. He cursed Karenth for mating too soon and causing his condition.

"That wasn't Karenth's fault," Tiffany had always said to her weyrmate's dragon. "Danala stimulated her to go into heat by leaving her at the Weyr when Baylith rose. Yes, she was way too young to mate, but Danala didn't care. She wanted power, so she killed Nadira in the midst of her mating flight. Karenth would never have mated before her time if her rider hadn't forced her to. She wasn't of an age to mate, but she was of an age to go into heat early if she wasn't taken away from her Weyr during another queen's mating flight."

_I was her egg,_ Colinath argued, _so it's her fault!_

Tiffany couldn't get him to see reason, so she let the matter rest. Karenth was dead now, so he couldn't wreak revenge on her for his and his clutch mates' conditions. All of them had stayed at Benden Weyr except Colinath, but he had returned, so now they were all there. Colinath had tried to fight Thread by relying on F'rangle's sight, but human sight was not as good as dragon sight, so there were times when he got scored for stupid mistakes. Finally, Lessa had put an end to them fighting Thread, as they kept coming back with major injuries that took months to recover. Colinath was very bitter about this. Dragons were created to fight Thread, not sit around while their riders caroused and drank too much Benden wine and passed out in pools of their own vomit. Colinath was very distressed about F'rangle's condition. There was no word for it on Pern, but it still existed.

Dana and I immediately thought of the word alcoholic when we saw F'rangle's antics. Tiffany had been the victim of it night after night, day after day. It had really pissed me off to see him drinking in front of us, and I always thought it was because of his dragon's condition. The drinking had gotten much worse after he was banned from fighting Thread, or so Lessa told us. Seeoru couldn't heal Colinath, because he was born with the condition, but with the extra knowledge Dana had received from Zigrill, I was pretty confident that she could do it.

"Don't heal me; heal Colinath," I kept saying. "Just try not to transpose his blindness onto yourself."

"There's a protocol that prevents that," Dana said cheerfully as she headed out.

I knew what was going to happen, but I still wanted to watch it. I climbed up between Chlorith's neck ridges and we took off. We found Colinath lying in a pool of very human vomit; F'rangle passed out between his forelegs.

"Disgraceful," Dana commented in disgust. "How dare he do this in front of his dragon?"

"I doubt he'd stop even if Colinath could see," I said loudly, trying to wake F'rangle out of his drunken stupor.

Nothing happened. Dana dropped to her knees by Colinath's head, oblivious to the titanic puddle of emesis she was kneeling in. I could feel the psychic energy radiating from her as I stood there, boots full of emesis. She began to sing 'Keymon's song', and I joined in, adding my telepathic touch to help her out. I also wanted to know how she was doing what she was doing, so I kept in contact with her. It was obvious she didn't know how to shield from unwanted contact like the Skolrom could, but the Skolrom learned it from their sgelum as they grew up. Their abilities were gradually given to them as they grew up and could handle them better. At least, the training was given to them as they grew older. If their sgelum died before they were 12, it usually happened that they had untrained and uncontrolled abilities and could not shield themselves from others.

This was what was happening to me and Dana right now. We hadn't been given the telepathic training we needed to control ourselves. Now I was latched on to Dana like a barnacle on a shipwreck. I couldn't let go. Because of this, she was inadvertently transferring her knowledge onto me. Neither of us realized it, but as Colinath received new sight, I was receiving new knowledge.

As we knelt there in the enormous puddle of lung butter, we exchanged telepathic contact. I suddenly felt much closer to her than I'd ever felt with anyone, even Tiffany. I felt ashamed of this, as Tiffany was my twinny. I suddenly vowed to myself that whatever was happening to me, I had to do it to her, too. I didn't know what was happening, and I was afraid to ask during the healing process, but I would ask as soon as we were done.

Dana shakily rose to her feet. The process had made both of us weak. We clung to each other for support.

"What just happened?" I asked her.

"You latched onto me as I was healing Colinath," she replied. "I believe I inadvertently gave you the knowledge Zigrill gave me when I was healing Zeeu."

"I want to give it to Tiffany, Ryeena, Kara, Seeoru, Lara, Ky, and Moreta, too," I said. "I want all of us to feel this closeness to each other. Can we all get together in a circle or something and hold hands and give them this knowledge?"

"Kaatee, too," Dana commented. "I don't know if Zigrill would approve of this, but as I've already given it to you, I guess there's no harm in it. In fact, we probably should give it to them, in case we have a big emergency where multiple people need healing simultaneously."

"If we give it to Seeoru, she'll pass it on to anyone she touches telepathically," I said. "I think she would have that ability, and the more people who have it, the better. I think everyone at Robinton Cove should have this ability because we could have a massive emergency where we need to use Eridani protocols like we did with F-Lessa and Zeeu."

Dana nodded to herself, and we mounted our dragons to head back to Robinton Cove.

Once we were there, we found our group of women along with my twins. Tiffany's twins were nowhere to be seen. There seemed to be a glow about both of my twins. They both had just experienced mating flights about two sevendays ago, one right after the other, and they'd been acting a little strangely since then. They'd been experiencing mating flights since the tender age of nine, but these flights were different somehow. A'dan was Ariana's weyrmate, and M'chael was Oriana's, but they were conspicuously absent. They were still very much boys, as they were only 14, but you'd think they'd have been with their weyrmates right after a mating flight.

"We've come to a decision," I said. "Dana accidentally transferred her new abilities to me as she healed Colinath, so we've come to the decision to share them with you."

"A'dan and M'chael should be here for this," said Tiffany.

"Where are they?" asked Dana. "Are they conveying passengers?"

"I don't know," said Tiffany plaintively. "They've been going off by themselves lately, and I think something's wrong."

"There shouldn't be, as they're each adding to their family," said Seeoru.

"What?" I demanded. "My twins are pregnant?"

"We are?" the twins chorused.

"Yes, you are," Seeoru smiled. "It happened during your mating flights."

"When we get these new abilities, will they automatically be transferred to our babies?" asked Ariana.

"I think so, if you do it right," Dana responded.

"Let's do it!" Ryeena exclaimed.

"We should really include our children in this," Moreta said, glowing herself.

Orlith had been flown by mini Gyarmath last sevenday, and she couldn't have been happier with the arrangement. G'narish would still have to be a Starleader, but with the ability to fly _between_, they could visit each other whenever they wanted, so it wasn't really a long distance relationship as I had experienced them back on Earth.

"Shouldn't G'narish be included in this?" asked Moreta.

"Which one?" I replied facetiously.

"Both!" said two identical voices.

Though the two G'narishes looked totally different from each other, their voices were still exactly the same… lilting and musical. They should have been harpers instead of dragonriders.

"Where's D'nag?" my G'narish wanted to know. "He should be included in this, as well."

"And T'bor," Ky insisted."

"Zeeu and Mia, too," Dana decided.

"We need to summon Raeana and G'bare from Igen," I said. "I shan't neglect my firstborn!"

In the end, all weyrmates and children were included in the transfer. We gathered around in a circle and held hands as we transferred the abilities to each other. I held Tiffany and G'narish's hands and clasped them to our bellies. I radiated all the energy I could into Tiffany, G'narish, and my unborn twins. Dana took care of Zeeu and Mia, but we all transferred into the others. The energy from our circle radiated so much, it was as though the sun was shining within our circle. I was exhausted by the end of it, but we weren't finished yet. We had to make sure everyone at Robinton Cove was given the abilities to use on patients when the need arose. Everyone had now had contact with a Kolrom, so everyone had Kolrom abilities, but now we had the controls and the protocols of the Eridani as well. The Skolrom hadn't had those, but now with our contact, there were a couple who were now blessed with them. This would definitely change the way things ran at our teaching hospital. Though we would teach new dragonriders the old ways first, we would infuse them with the abilities of the Skolrom and the protocols of the Eridani.

Chapter 6 – Cautious Optimism (Dana's P.O.V.)

Elli was wrong on one point. From the moment she had first established the link, I was aware of her telepathic connection during Colinath's Eridani protocol to restore his eyesight.

Every member of a first contact team in the Star Service is required to undergo extensive testing and training in various aspects of psionic abilities (telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation, and so on). For a few races in the Federated Sentient Planets, telepathy and other esper talents were their primary means of communications. It was imperative that any member of a first contact team be as prepared as much as possible for such contact in order to avoid any confusion and potential danger. So, although I initially was inexperienced when my esper talents manifested themselves, I was better prepared than the average Pern citizen in dealing with them.

So why hadn't I broken the link when it happened? While the Skolrom healing talent certainly aided the restoration work on Colinath, the Eridani protocol used on him was complex, several stages potentially life-threatening if your focus is distracted even a tiny bit. Rather than risk Colinath's life, I chose to ignore the link, focusing my concentration wholly and totally on executing the Eridani protocol to the letter… every "I" dotted, every "T" crossed. Only in that way could I honor Concordantrix Zigrill and the incredible gift of knowledge she had bestowed on me. I was determined to prove I was worthy of that gift.

The healing went without a hitch, much to my considerable relief. Colinath's bellow of surprise when he was finally able to see for the first time filled my heart with incredible joy!

"By the First Egg!" he whispered, snorting in surprise when he realized he'd just spoken aloud. "Dana, I…"

"You're welcome!" I chuckled, pounding him gently on the neck. "Any regrets? About getting your eyesight back, I mean."

Colinath shook his massive head in a clearly human negative fashion.

"Now I can finally do what every dragon was meant to do," he rumbled, glancing skyward, "battle Thread!" Craning his neck around to gaze off towards his weyr, he asked, "Can you do anything for F'rangle?"

"Yours was a birth defect, my friend," I sighed, gently laying my hand on his massive neck. "What your rider is dealing with is not. There may be ways to help him… the Skolrom healing art… the Eridani protocols… but we can't force it on him. He has to make the choice to ask for help."

_Chlorith?_ I silently called.

_Dana? How did it go?_ she responded.

_Why not ask him yourself?_ I chuckled.

_It is amazing, 'Rith!_ he happily reported. _So many colors! So many new things to see! And the others better watch my dust the next mating flight!_

_Maybe between the two of you, you might be able to convince Elli to undergo the procedure,_ I suggested.

_She's already said no, Dana_, Chlorith reminded me.

_I remember,_ I chuckled. _However, there are certain Eridani protocols that can only be performed by a sighted individual. Perhaps you can use that as a selling point the next time you bring it up with Elli._

_And F'rangle?_ Chlorith asked.

_With his dragon's vision restored, we'll see,_ I replied. _Perhaps some physical therapy, getting F'rangle accustomed to his dragon's restored sight._

_Not a bad idea,_ Chlorith agreed. _Work on improving their coordination and reaction times._

"What if he won't try?" Colinath asked, glancing back to their weyr. "What if he's already given up on himself?"

"Then maybe it's time we remind your rider, Colinath," I growled, marching towards F'rangle's weyr, "that, while a dragon mirrors its rider,…"

I whipped aside the sleeping chamber curtain.

"The reverse is also true," I spoke, anger rising in me as I spotted F'rangle lying in bed, an empty wine skin on the floor, vomit on the sleeping furs. "It's time for the rider to mirror the dragon!"

In quick succession, I kicked the wine skin against the wall, whipped the reeking sleeping fur off the slumbering rider, then seized a bare ankle and yanked F'rangle off the bed!

"Whoof!" he grunted, slamming hard to the cold floor. "Hey, what…"

I wasn't finished. Fueled by adrenaline and anger, I took off at a run, dragging F'rangle out of the weyr by the leg! I didn't stop until I sent him sailing bodily into Colinath's rib cage.

"What by the First Shell is going on?!" he demanded, staggering to his feet.

"Mount up!" I ordered, shoving F'rangle towards his dragon.

"You can't be serious!" he protested, fingering his shoddy clothing. "I'm not…"

"You won't need your riding furs for this," I growled, pulling out my blaster and leveling it at the hapless rider. "Now mount up!"

"Okay! Okay!" F'rangle grumbled, climbing up Colinath's proffered foreleg.

"Belt in!" I ordered, keeping the blaster leveled on the recalcitrant rider.

"Chill, will you?" he grumbled, fumbling with the fastenings. "I'm doing it!"

_Colinath?_ I silently inquired.

_He's secure,_ the dragon replied, verified by the images Colinath was broadcasting with his restored eyes.

"Aloft!" I ordered.

Before F'rangle could react, Colinath leapt skyward, rising at a blistering rate!

"Shards and Shells!" F'rangle exclaimed, clinging as tightly as he could to Colinath's neck ridges.

Holstering my blaster, I climbed aboard Tarnaa, strapped in, and, a heartbeat later, we were awing, pursuing the pair.

"Colinath, what's gotten into you?!" F'rangle shouted, eyes tearing up from the wind blast. "Land!"

_Not yet,_ his dragon responded.

"What do you mean, not yet?!" F'rangle raged, pounding his fist on his dragon's neck. "Land! Now!"

At that precise moment, Tarnaa and I dove in front of the pair, causing Colinath to pull up abruptly to avoid a collision.

"Has that crazy healer gone mad?!" F'rangle exclaimed, nervous sweat starting to trickle down his back.

Time and again, Tarnaa and I dove without warning at Colinath. Each time, he was able to avoid the collision.

_Land!_ I silently ordered.

Ten minutes after we had taken to the skies, we returned to the ground.

"Are you out of your farding mind?!" F'rangle exploded, sliding down his dragon's side as I walked up to him.

"Only one here out of their minds is you, dragonrider," I growled, seizing him by the jerkin he was still wearing and pulling him close. "You've been driving your dragon sick with your behavior!"

"And how am I to blame for that?" F'rangle complained, gesturing at his dragon. "He can't see to fight Thread!"

"Then how did he avoid colliding with Tarnaa and I when we dove at you two?"

That brought F'rangle up short, his jaw hanging open.

"You certainly weren't keeping an eye out for us while you were up there," I growled, shoving him roughly away. "How do you explain that?"

It took a moment for the facts to finally fall into place in F'rangle's alcohol-fuddled grey matter before he gasped, whirling to stare at his lifemate.

"I can see," Colinath reported, coming up to rub F'rangle's face with his muzzle. "Dana used her new healing skills and the Eridani protocols to give me back my sight."

"You… you… you can see?!" F'rangle stammered, staring at his dragon.

"This was the first miss," Colinath responded, broadcasting an image he had seen.

F'rangle gasped, staggering back a step.

"And these were the others," Colinath added, showing a chain of images from each near-miss.

"You can see!" F'rangle sobbed, haltingly approaching his dragon before gently laying his hand on Colinath's side.

_Now it is time for the rider to mirror the dragon_, Colinath rumbled, rubbing his muzzle against his lifemate's face. _Can you do that?_

"I… Colinath… I…" F'rangle stammered, tears pouring down his face. "I don't deserve you, dragon."

_Well, you're stuck with me,_ his dragon rumbled, sounding almost like a deep-throated chuckle. _Chlorith can provide physical therapy, helping us both to regain our fighting strength. Once we can prove we're once more ready to battle Thread, Lessa will let us fly again!_

"She'll never let us fly again," F'rangle muttered, leaning against his dragon's neck.

"Are you certain of that?"

"Lessa!" F'rangle gasped, whirling at the sound of the Weyrwoman's voice.

"I saw the pair of you up there," Benden's Weyrwoman remarked, pointing skyward. "Dana told me how she was able to restore Colinath's vision. If you can pass Chlorith's physical therapy, we'll test you to see how you handle yourself in the air. You do well at that, and you and Colinath will be back fighting Thread with the rest of us!"

"It's your choice, F'rangle," I said, coming up beside Lessa. "And your chance to undo the past. Not many get the opportunity."

"Well? What's it going to be?" Lessa demanded, fists on hips.

"I won't fail you, Weyrwoman," F'rangle whispered, sinking to a knee before her. Glancing over at his dragon, he added, "I won't fail either of you!"

Lessa helped him stand, gesturing for F'rangle to go to his dragon.

_I'll get something set up for them day after tomorrow,_ Chlorith quietly broadcast.

Lessa and I both smiled, watching as F'rangle wept against his dragon's neck. It had been a drastic intervention, but given Colinath's calm response to F'rangle's apologies, I was cautiously optimistic about the outcome.

Chapter 7 - Holoo-Ro (Elli's P.O.V.)

Months had passed since Dana and I had healed Colinath of his blindness, and I was still refusing to have the same procedure done on me. I was too scared of what the change might do to me. I'd have to relearn everything, and it might change how judgmental I was. Plus, I was already 54, so being able to see at such an old age was not precisely my cup of tea.

Christmas was approaching fast, and this time, I wanted to get all of the Starworld celebrating as well as the Pern from my own reality. We had so much to celebrate. The Eridani protocols had to be used only three times since Colinath had been healed. Once, we had to use the healing on a new baby because her parents couldn't stand to have a blind child. I had refused to join in that healing process because I had thought the parents were being very unfair not to accept their child the way she was.

"Don't you think this will undo everything I've been trying to teach everybody about disabilities?" I had demanded of Dana. "This child is fine the way she is. Just because she has no optic nerves like me doesn't mean she's gonna have other disabilities as well!"

I had stalked out of the room and not come back until the parents had departed with their newly sighted child. Dana and I had gotten into it about that healing, and we hadn't spoken for three days straight afterward. Neither of us would back down from our opinion, until finally, Seeoru told us to let the matter rest. What was done was done and we couldn't go back now.

Tiffany had been on my side, so she hadn't spoken to Dana, either. She had stuck up for me and my opinions which comforted me through those awful three days.

However, there were some Eridani protocols that required sight, so I was beginning to wonder whether or not to go through with the procedure or to try doing them using Chlorith's sight. Through me, she had also gained the Eridani knowledge, so wouldn't her sight be sufficient?

G'narish was in a right state now. He had made himself in charge of all the decorating done at Robinton Cove. He was so agitated about where things should go and what color ornaments should go with what that I silently stole away from Robinton Cove to visit the Starworld. Seeoru went along with me so that she could see her parents. Len-ruin and Daphne were now Starleaders of Leeaajhu Starhold, and they had heartily disapproved of Seeoru abandoning her post as senior Starwoman and going to live in our reality. It had taken many days of fighting and tears, but they had finally given in. Br'an had gone with her as he was her starmate. He didn't come with us on our expedition. I knew Daphne was human, but I hadn't been prepared for how deeply she loved Len-Ruin. I hadn't known humans and Skolrom could be together. Of course, Br'an and Seeoru were living proof of the fact that they could be, but I never saw them together. I had never seen them hugging or kissing or showing any kind of endearment toward each other. The minute we landed, we met sheer and utter chaos. People were running all over the place as a Kolrom boy stammered out apologies.

"You can't apologize. for this!" a woman screamed at the top of her lungs. "We've had it! You're done here! We don't want you anymore!"

"What's going on?" I demanded.

"That's Holoo-Ro," Seeoru whispered. "He's an orphan. His Sgelum died in one of F-Lessa's wars when he was six, so he never learned to control his abilities. When he paths, he broadcasts on a high band. When someone feels emotion, he actually exhibits it. When he tries to heal someone, he overdoes it. He gives you superhuman strength."

"Why do people shun him?" I demanded. "Can't he be adopted? Hasn't he ever been found on search?"

"From what I heard he was already adopted," Seeoru said sadly. "You can't be adopted a second time."

"What about giving him back to his birth Sgelum?" I begged.

"Once you've given up your child, you're done with them. You have no more contact with them."

"He's had to fend for himself since he was six?" I demanded. "How long has that been?"

"10 years," Seeoru said sadly. "I thought of taking him into the Starhold, but that would be breaking tradition, and the older riders would just kick him out again because he can't control himself. He's a liability."

"Am I a liability because of my blindness?" I demanded.

"Of course not!" Seeoru breathed. "But you don't literally fry people's brains when you try to heal them. He's killed people by accident because he can't control himself."

"Holoo-Ro?" I called softly. ""Come here a sec."

I opened my arms invitingly. I could sense strong emotions in him, not the least of which, utter sadness and hopelessness. He was everything but happy. I wanted to change that.

At first, he just stared at me, at my arms held open to him. How could that be? No one loved him, not since his Sgelum died. Then, sensing my strong telepathic vibe, he crept toward me. I sent him all the love and happiness I could, and he fell into my arms, silently weeping. I noticed that when he cried, he shook as though tremendous sobs wracked his body, but he made no sound, not even to sniffle.

_That's what Skolrom do when they are unloved,_ said Seeoru. _That's what they must do so no one notices their tears._

_Is he weeping now?_ I pathed back.

_Yes, he is,_ Seeoru responded.

I held him tightly, rocking him back-and-forth, sitting down on the ground so he wouldn't collapse on top of me.

"I love you, Holoo-Ro," I whispered. "Come back to my reality with us. We could teach you to refine your abilities, and you could have a family at Robinton Cove."

_Is that really wise?_ Seeoru pathed. _He's killed people trying to heal them._

_Do you want that behavior to continue?_ I shot back at her. _I seriously think we can help him._

_Learning control must come from the parents,_ Seeoru pathed.

_His weren't even his natural parents,_ I argued. _I really think that we can do some good in his life._

He must have heard our telepathic conversation because he clung to me as though I held a lifeline in my hands. I must have been his last hope for love and understanding, and through that love and understanding, survival. No Kolrom could survive without love. It was as imperative for them as their furry symbionts. I also noticed, as I rubbed his furry back, that he could not camouflage.

"Why can't you camouflage, Holoo-Ro?" I asked him with as much gentleness as I could muster.

"I never learned to," Holoo-Ro whispered back.

"Doesn't your symbiont do that for you?"

"The symbiont needs to learn along with the Kolrom," Holoo-Ro said in a flat voice.

"It's okay," I softly spoke. "We can teach you everything. I can't camouflage as I'm human, but I can teach you how to control and refine your abilities. All of us at Robinton Cove have abilities, so we'd be happy to teach you."

Holoo-Ro looked as though what I was offering him was too good to be true. I understood why he mistrusted me, but I wanted him to realize that this was the real thing. There were no nasty repercussions that went along with this offer.

"Come on. I'll take you straight to Robinton Cove. Have you ever ridden a dragon?"

"Well, sure, when my Sgelum were still alive," he said in a shaky voice.

"Chlorith, get ready to take off," I said.

"Come on, Lineth," I heard Seeoru say to her diminutive queen.

The next thing we knew we had landed at Robinton Cove. I helped Holoo-Ro dismount and, taking my cane down from Chlorith's back, I led him purposefully into the building.

G'narish was still having trouble rigging up the Christmas lights, so I avoided him like the plague. He tended to get extremely angry at the lights when they didn't work, and at anyone who crossed his path whenever he was interrupted while doing this task.

I veered away from him and went straight up to Dana. She was finishing some paperwork and gasped at the sight of the six-foot-six Kolrom.

"Who the hell is that?" she demanded.

"This is Holoo-Ro," I said, and gave her the rundown.

"He's a liability," Seeoru protested.

"Not if we can teach him," Dana objected.

"You're supposed to have control by the time you're 12," Seeoru argued. "That's when you've reached your full maturity."

"He's still a child in my estimation," Dana fired back. "He has no parents. Try teaching him, Seeoru. Try teaching him how to camouflage. Try teaching him how to control the empathy. Try teaching him to shield."

"I've never taken on the role of a parent before," Seeoru argued, sounding dubious. "He's my age, so I don't think I can do it."

"You'd be amazed at what you can do if you tried," I muttered. "That's always what Mom says to me, and she's right."

"Stop seeing him as a liability and start seeing him as a hurt and unloved Kolrom being who needs love and understanding just to survive," Dana yelled at her, making Holoo-Ro cringe away from her.

Suddenly, I felt such great fear that I began to tremble all over. Why was I afraid? What was I afraid of? Then I realized that Holoo-Ro was shaking in my arms, and that he was broadcasting his fear on such a wide band that I was probably not the only one who was feeling it.

"See, Dana, this is what he does!" Seeoru shouted back. "He can't keep his feelings to himself!"

"It's okay, Holoo-Ro," I said gently, rubbing his furry back. "Dana and I trust you. We think we can teach you to control this."

_She doesn't want me._

The message was broadcast in such a volume that I instinctively released him to put my hands over my ears.

"He does that, too," Seeoru said to Dana, realizing that Holoo-Ro had heard every word she had pathed. "He doesn't know how to shield. He eavesdrops on everyone's conversations. I mean he hears it all!"

"That's not his fault, Seesee," Dana said more gently because she realized that it was the yelling that was terrifying the poor boy.

"Tarnaa, Rollith, and Chlorith all just clutched recently, so we could stand him up on the Hatching Grounds," Tiffany suggested. "The dragon he Impresses can always shield for him."

"It'd still be a good idea to teach him," I said, finally joining in the conversation. "Look at him over here, Seeoru, he's trembling. He can barely stand upright he's so petrified."

"And he's broadcasting it!" she cried, bursting into tears.

Her croons were so heartbreaking that I found myself between a rock and a hard place. Should I stay with Holoo-Ro who was causing the breakdown in the first place, or should I go comfort Seeoru?

"I'm sorry," mumbled Holoo-Ro miserably. "I should just go."

"Oh, no, you don't!" Dana and I interjected in concert. "You're staying right here!"

"What's going on?" asked Tiffany, coming into the room.

I gave her a succinct, concise, and to the point summary of Holoo-Ro's tragic life.

"Naturally he should stay here where we can keep a close eye on him," Tiffany said in a voice that brooked no argument. "Seeoru should try to teach him how to shield and camouflage, and we can help her."

"Outvoted, Seesee, three to one."

Seeoru sighed.

"It's not that I don't like him," she said, trying to make up for all the bad things she had said about him. "I feel sorry for him, and I want everything to be okay with him, but I don't think I'm the right person to teach a 16-year-old how to control himself."

"You're the only other Kolrom here," I argued. "You learned young but now it's your turn to teach."

"I'll try," Seeoru sighed, and I could tell she was still skeptical that she could pull it off. "I just don't want to fall victim to him."

"You won't," said a new voice, and Ariana waddled into the room, carrying her twin siblings, Paul and Ezra. "His lack of control will work to his and our advantage."

"Are you being clairvoyant again?" I asked suspiciously.

"Yes I am, you got a problem with that?" she quipped.

I chuckled.

"If you say so, Ari," I said, grinning. "I can't take the twins now, though. I got Holoo-Ro, and I'm not letting go until he calms down."

"Dad's done with the lights," she said. "I'm not feeling all that well. I've got these awful cramps and they won't go away!"

"Come here, Ari," said Dana, wheeling her into one of the private rooms.

Before she left, Ariana turned to Seeoru. "Teach your brother all you know. He'll benefit greatly from your teachings, but he'll also benefit from his lack of—ow!—self-control!"

"Lemme help you, Dana," Seeoru said, rushing after them.

I, too, had noticed Ariana's choice of words. "Your brother will benefit greatly from your teachings."

From what I gathered, Seeoru didn't have a brother. She only had a twin sister, Seeonu. The other egg in the clutch had not hatched, so Seeoru's brothers had perished. Had her parents lied to her? Had they given the boys up for adoption for some unknown reason? It was time to get to the bottom of this.

Chapter 8 – Rebuilding Trust (Dana's P.O.V.)

An orphan Kolrom? Given what I'd learned about the species, it didn't seem possible. At the same time, there were examples of human parents passing away for various reasons. In most cases, the orphans were taken in by relatives of their parents. But in a rare few cases, the children were left to fend for themselves.

Still, among humans, adoptions, while not the norm, did offer children a chance to find a new family. With the right sort of upbringing, even children who were not genetically descended from their adoptive parents could find hope and love. No reason Holoo-Ro couldn't follow that precedent.

There was also the problem of his unrestrained/uncontrolled esper talents. I could understand why the Skolrom were wary of Holoo-Ro. But I was also sympathetic for his unfortunate circumstance, due in part to the actions of the now deceased F-Lessa. With no Gelum to guide his learning how to control his innate gifts, it was no wonder his gifts were out of control. It also explained my sudden outburst a moment ago. Fortunately, I knew of a temporary remedy, something I had witnessed during my Academy days, something Robinton Cove and the teaching hospital were eminently equipped to deal with.

"Be sure the door is closed behind you, Seeoru," I instructed as I stepped over to the med scanner control panel.

Uncertainty writ all over her face, Seeoru complied. "Okay, now what?"

I reached for a particular switch on the control panel and flipped it on.

"Was something supposed to happen?" Elli wondered, still supporting Holoo-Ro.

Almost instantly, dragons outside could be heard bugling their distress. Smiling, I flicked the switch off.

_… are you?! Elli, answer me!_ Chlorith was frantically broadcasting.

_Seeoru, is everything alright?_ Lineth chimed in, her tone just as desperate.

_We're fine, my heart,_ Seeoru responded, her expression puzzled. _What's wrong?_

_We lost contact with all of you!_ Chlorith complained. _It was like someone pulled the plug on our links!_

"It's a good thing you brought Holoo-Ro here, Elli," I explained, pointing at the switch.

"What just happened?" Tiffany demanded.

"Psionic dampener," Ari replied, grinning up at her mother. "I read about it in AIVAS' information files."

"Occasionally, during the psionics screening each cadet at the Academy went through," I explained, glancing about the room, "the screening staff would occasionally encounter a wild esper talent, someone who had never received training in the use of their powers."

"Just like Holoo-Ro!" Elli exclaimed.

I nodded. "Long ago, those galactic races who had manifested esper talents developed a device to damp down those powers, especially when they were treating someone who might be ill and unaware that they were wielding their powers."

"That's what you did just now!" Seeoru chimed in, glancing over at Holoo-Ro.

"It's why our dragons panicked, thinking the links we share had been somehow severed," I explained. "The strength of the dampening field can be adjusted from mild to extreme, depending on the need. That setting was at maximum just now."

"I didn't feel a thing!" Elli spluttered.

"I did," Holoo-Ro whispered.

"Did it hurt?" Elli asked, clearly concerned.

Holoo-Ro shook his head.

"We'll get to you in a sec, my friend," I said, giving his furry shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Right now, I need to see what's up with Ari."

Grabbing a portable med scanner off the nearby table, I switched it on and began a detailed medical scan of Ari.

"Abdominal cramps, you say?" I spoke, adjusting the scanner controls. "When did the symptoms first show up?"

"Shortly after the twins were born," Ari replied. "Why?"

"Gradual onset or sudden?" I continued, sweeping the scanner up and down.

"Sudden," she replied.

"Location?"

"Upper right part, just below the rib cage."

"Any nausea or vomiting?"

"Queasy in the stomach, but no vomiting," Ari admitted.

"Any family history of this sort of thing?" I asked, including Elli in the conversation.

"Not that I can recall," Elli remarked.

"Holoo-Ro, do you feel it?" I inquired, turning to him.

He nodded.

"What is it?" Ari wondered as I closed the scanner.

"Nothing that can't be treated," I chuckled, patting her on the shoulder. "Just a simple case of gallstones."

"Gallstones?!" Elli spluttered. "You're sure?"

"100% certain," I replied. "Hell, Elli, you have the Kolrom healing skills. You should be able to handle this with no sweat!"

"But, I've never healed anything like that before," Elli argued, shaking her head, still holding on to Holoo-Ro.

"You are Kolrom?" Holoo-Ro asked, glancing up at her.

"No," Elli replied, shaking her head. "Just a human who's inherited the gift from other Skolrom."

"Seeoru can guide you," Holoo-Ro said, looking across at our Kolrom friend. "She is a good healer."

"And that brings us to question number two," I spoke, opening the scanner once more.

This time, I took readings from Seeoru and Holoo-Ro.

"What are you talking about?" Tiffany wondered.

"Ari's comment just before we came in here," I explained, transferring the data I'd gathered to the med scanner's holographic projection system.

"The one about teaching her brother?" Elli wondered, and then gasped. "Holoo-Ro is her brother?!"

"That's not possible!" Seeoru exclaimed, bug-eyed with disbelief. "I have no other siblings, only my twin sister Seeonu!"

"One universal constant about the multiverse, Seeoru," I explained as I fired up the holoprojector, "is regardless of the species, all living creatures inherit one half of their DNA from each parent."

Two images appeared in the air in front of us. One was Seeoru, the other Holoo-Ro.

"Here's the DNA sequence each of you possess," I went on, the classic double helix spiral appearing beside each image. "Here is the DNA each of you inherited from your parents."

Pressing a few buttons, the double helixes split apart, separating into the portions Seeoru and Holoo-Ro inherited from their parents.

"Now watch what happens when I overlay the images of the DNA you each inherited from your fathers," I said.

"Our Sgelum," Holoo-Ro corrected me.

The two portions that represented the DNA each had inherited from their Sgelum moved up above the other segments then overlaid themselves.

"Holy shit!" Tiffany exclaimed.

"They're exactly the same!" Ari chimed in.

"Are you saying…" Elli began.

I nodded. "Same Gelum, different Sgelu. Given the chrono-markers in their individual DNA, they were born at nearly the same time, Holoo-Ro only a few days before Seeoru and her sister… her chumoru, did I say that right?"

"Then… he really is…" Elli whispered.

"My chumuroo!" Seeoru sobbed, kneeling next to Elli and Holoo-Ro, throwing her arms around the pair, hugging them tightly.

"She's my chumoru?" Holoo-Ro wept, clearly disbelieving.

"No doubt about it," I replied, nodding.

Gingerly, tenderly, Elli slid out of the hug, leaving the two siblings by themselves, tears pouring down their faces.

"But what about his talents?" Elli whispered, coming over beside me. "You had the psionics training at the Academy. How long do you think it'll take for Holoo-Ro to master them?"

"Using strict observation and repetition, several Turns at least," I replied. "But there may be a faster way."

"A mind meld!" Ari concluded, grinning at me. "Like what Concordantrix Zigrill used to impart the Eridani protocols to you!"

Grinning, I nodded. "That shared knowledge will help Holoo-Ro master his psionics abilities much faster than rote repetition…"

"Guiding his actions as he practices the skills!" Tiffany chimed in. "Radical notion, Dana!"

"And now, young lady," I said, grinning as I led Ari over to the med pod, "let's get those gallstones taken care of."

Compared to what I would have to do to help Holoo-Ro, the medical procedure to heal Ari of the gallstones was…

_Easy-peasy! _Lineth reminded me.

"Smart ass!" Elli chuckled as she finished the Kolrom healing of her daughter.

"Med scans are clear," Moreta reported, patting Ari on the arm. "Your Mom does good work!"

"Flatterer!" Elli laughed heartily. "I'm just glad that's all it was."

The procedure to help Holoo-Ro consumed a little more time, but Seeoru and I were being extra careful as we worked. She was worried about a power spike from her chumuroo, but that's where the psionics dampener made all the difference. While I guided Seeoru through the mind meld, I had Moreta modulate the dampening field whenever a surge was detected. It took nearly two hours to complete due to the slow pace we held ourselves to, but it paid big dividends in the end.

Chlorith personally took on the responsibility of administering Holoo-Ro's rehabilitation, including practice with the various esper talents every Kolrom possessed. By the time she was finished, Holoo-Ro had demonstrated sufficient mastery of his abilities that he was no longer deemed a threat to the Skolrom or any other sentient beings. And under his chumoru's watchful eye, Seeoru's chumuroo proved his healing abilities to the other Skolrom.

"And you were worried!" I chuckled, standing beside Seeoru as we watched her chumuroo heal a dragon.

"I confess, I had my doubts," she admitted.

Yes, doubts and worries that had been lifted, replaced by respect and love for family and friends. Holoo-Ro and Seeoru had a lot of family history to catch up on. I was happy to see the bond between the two siblings growing stronger with each passing day! For a time, the multiverse was at peace with itself!

Chapter 9 - Not Yet Perfect (Elli's P.O.V.)

We weren't completely out of the woods as far as Holoo-Ro was concerned. The mind meld had taken the edge off his shielding and controlling issue, but we still had a ways to go before he was perfectly in control of himself. This fact was demonstrated two sevendays before Christmas. I was in bed with a bad headache, and he had come into my room to check on me. He was now living with us, as I had taken him on as my fosterling. He got it into his head to heal me so I could return to work, but it went horribly wrong, (or so I thought.). He was cradling my head in his hands, rubbing it so that the pain would go away, when I felt as though something were growing between my eyes and my brain. I felt it connect, and suddenly I had the weirdest sensation of brightness.

"Ow! That hurts! That's too bright! Turn it off!" I shouted, covering my face with my hands.

Holoo-Ro went white as a sheet.

"Oh no!" he whimpered, tears pouring down his furry cheeks. "I did it again! What have I done?"

He prostrated himself on top of me, trying vainly to undo what he had done.

"I sense you on top of me," I said. "Your fur has no substance to it, but it's very beautiful, anyway. It's not dull, but it's dark!"

"No Kolrom has ever done that before!" Seeoru breathed.

She had come running at Holoo-Ro's distressed cry and had guessed at what he had done.

"The reason she doesn't know what you did was because she's never had it happen to her before," she said aloud. "Ariana was right when she said your lack of self-control would work to our advantage. Now Elli can perform every Eridani protocol she was given."

"What the hell's going on?" I demanded. "Will someone please relieve the pain in my eyes? It feels like someone's shining a flashlight in my face!"

"Could you see light before?" asked Seeoru gently.

"I felt the heat of the light in my face. I had to close my eyes when the sun was in them because of the heat."

"Perhaps all you did was make her light sensitive," Seeoru concluded.

I sensed a huge shadow looming over me as water fell on my face. That shadow seemed to be made up of other smaller, oddly-shaped shadows.

"What's that thing looming over me?" I demanded.

"That's me!" Holoo-Ro cried, and the speed of the water falling on me increased.

I realized then that he was crying. He had lost control when he had healed my headache, and he had given me...

"I can see?" I asked in a soft, incredulous voice.

"It sure seems like it," Seeoru replied, tears pouring down her cheeks.

I could see the water droplets falling off her face.

"Now I have to relearn everything!" I shouted, pushing Holoo-Ro away from me in my anger.

"Just colors and print," Seeoru protested mildly. "I'd close my eyes, touch something, then open them to see what it looks like."

My anger dissolved when Holoo-Ro began to croon. Usually he just shook silently whenever he wept, but now he crooned like Seeoru did, and I could tell I'd hurt him deeply.

"Oh, come here, sweetheart," I said, relenting.

I closed my eyes as I held out my arms to him. When I opened my eyes again, he was on top of me, (I was still lying down), and I could tell he was tall and skinny — very skinny, as though he were malnourished. I put my arms around him and held him.

"What color is your fur?" I asked, peering at it.

"B-black, like my eyes," he replied.

"So that's what black looks like," I remarked. "Flat, with no brightness. But your black has a shininess to it. Or is that the tears in your eyes?"

"It c-could be both." Holoo-Ro wept.

"My fur is blond, like my hair when I camouflage," Seeoru said excitedly. "Can you see it?"

I peered over Holoo-Ro's shoulder.

"That's shiny, too, but in a different way," I said.

"Blond is a combination of colors," explained Seeoru. "Mine is more golden than white. It's not a pure yellow, so it's really hard to explain it."

"I see it!" I cried excitedly.

"I think we ought to get you in to see Dana," Seeoru said. "Like I said, no Kolrom has ever been able to reverse a congenital defect."

"I wouldn't have called my blindness a defect," I said hotly. "I'd call it a disability but not a defect."

Then my heart filled with sorrow. Tiffany had prosthetic eyes. She wouldn't be able to share in my joy. Seeoru must have caught my thought for she put a hand on my shoulder.

"She'll be able to be happy for you, but I doubt even Holoo could heal her blindness. I know I couldn't when I healed everything else."

"Yeah, I highly doubt that as my eyes are prosthetics," Tiffany said, walking into the room at that moment. "How's your headache, twin? Dana's been looking for you, but I told her you were sick."

"Holoo-Ro healed my headache, but he lost control and broke precedent," I said. "No Kolrom has ever been able to do what he did just now."

"Oh boy, what has he done now?" asked Tiffany in some trepidation.

I reached for her hand and grasped it in mine. I squeezed it hard, trying in that grasp to show her that no matter what happened with my vision I would still love her as my twinny.

"What's the matter, dude?" she asked apprehensively.

"I love you, twin!" I cried, my eyes filling with tears. "No matter what happens to me, it won't change anything between us!"

"Of course it won't," said Tiffany impatiently. "Now will you tell me what's the matter?"

"He healed my optic nerves," I whispered, afraid that Tiffany would hate me now because I had vision.

"But that's impossible!" she whispered, tears of joy filling her eyes.

I mistook the joy for anger and broke down, sobbing, "I'm sorry, Twinny!"

"What's there to be sorry for?" Tiffany asked, kneeling down and putting her arms around me. "I just would've never chose it for myself."

"I didn't choose it, either," I explained. "Holoo-Ro lost control again and went a little overboard with the healing process. I'm just sorry it can't be done for you, too."

"Anything's possible," said a new voice, and Dana walked into the room.

"Do we need to do a little more training, Holoo?" she asked solicitously.

Holoo-Ro nodded, shaking with silent sobs.

"She isn't happy about it," he whispered. "She's gonna hate me now. I need to go. I've done more damage than good here."

I released Tiffany, jumped out of bed, and ran to my foster son. I threw my arms around his trembling form and pulled his head down to my shoulder.

"Shh, shh, Holoo," I whispered softly. "It's gonna take a lot of getting used to, but if I go back to kindergarten I'll manage it."

"You won't have to go back to Kindergarten," Dana scoffed. "All you need are some sighted friends to help you learn to read and write and learn your colors."

"What about my twin?" I wept. "I'd feel bad if she couldn't get the same gift I got, but she doesn't even have real eyes anymore."

"I never wanted to see, you know that, twin," she said in a duh voice. "It'd change who I am."

"I didn't want it either, but now that I have it, I don't see how I couldn't've."

"We might be able to craft some bionic eyes for you, Tiff," said Dana. "It might take a while, but you'd be able to keep the marbles you have in. We'd just construct shells like the ones you have, but with the ability to see. I have the necessary diagrams from the AIVAS files. Now it'll just be a matter of time before we get it right."

"You'd be able to have the best of both possible worlds, twin," I said joyfully. "If you don't want to see something just take your eyes out!"

"LOL, twin," she chuckled. "You're so funny."

"I try not to be," I responded seriously before we both erupted in laughter.

"Just don't ask me to go sighted guide yet," I continued more seriously. "I'll still be using my cane until I know what things are. This is gonna be a tough adjustment to make, but Kolrom healing is irreversible, so I'll have to make it."

"Let's do a scan of you just to make sure this is what's really going on," said Dana as she got out her scan pad and ran a scan of my head.

"Yeah, it looks as though your optic nerves have regenerated," she remarked after examining the scan results. "This is gonna make history! And you now have your septum-pellucidum, too."

"Whoa!" I gasped. "This is heavy!"

"Are you okay? , Elli?" asked Holoo-Ro plaintively.

"Yes, sweetheart, I am," I said. "This is just gonna take a lot of getting used to."

"Will you do me, too?" asked a plaintive voice.

Ariana had come into the room. Unlike me, she had no cane, as Fandarel hadn't gotten the design right. She had had to use long sticks which kept breaking every time she used them. Now I could hear another one snap in two as she tried to hold it up to stop walking. For Ari, blindness had been a much tougher adjustment to make, as she'd had sight when she was little. She had lost her sight because of the fire-head shortly before she had Impressed Aureath. She had never seen what her dragon looked like. She had described Chlorith to me in great detail, and she still seemed to see when she had her prescient visions, but for normal life purposes, she was totally blind.

"I don't know if I should!" cried Holoo-Ro in a tremulous voice.

"I'll use the psionic dampener just in case," Dana spoke gently. "But any Kolrom should be able to heal you, my precious, as your loss of sight was not congenital."

"What about the triplets?" I asked. "They were born blind, but it was because of the fire-head."

I had not been devastated like G'narish, but now that I'd been healed and now knew what it was like to see, I wanted the same for the triplets. Ari and I both rode queens. What would it be like if they rode fighting dragons? Of course, Thread was supposed to stop falling in three Turns, but wouldn't the dragons still chew firestone for the spring games which they'd have to play to keep the history alive?

"There are other sports the dragons can play, too," Tiffany said, making me jump. "We could adapt four balls to play Quidditch."

"That'll take a long time, as Fandarel and Benelek need to work out how to keep the balls flying, but I'd be the first one to sign up!" I cried passionately. "I love Quidditch!"

"You'd be an excellent Chaser," Tiffany commented. "Chlorith would dance around the other players to get you to the goalposts."

"That might be considered cheating." I grinned. Suddenly, jumping to my feet, I exclaimed, "Chlorith! I gotta see what she looks like!"

"I'm surprised she didn't bugle when Holoo-Ro restored your sight," said Dana.

"She was probably asleep," I said.

I walked to the Hatching Grounds using my cane because I still didn't know what I was seeing. There was Chlorith, but her queen egg was gone! I distinguished the large ovoid shaped things on the ground as eggs, but there was no golden egg. I knew she'd clutched a queen, but where was the egg? I had heard the sobbing in my head, but as I could hear every dragon and Kolrom on the planet, I had discounted it. When she saw me, she keened the same way mini Ramoth had done. I threw my cane down and rushed to her, cradling her head in my arms.

"I'm so sorry, precious!" I cried. "Why didn't you tell me the egg was gone?"

"You were so happy!" Chlorith sobbed.

"I should've known something was up," I muttered. "I think Dana used the psionic damper because Holoo-Ro had lost control again. Perhaps that's why I didn't sense you."

"P-p-probably," sobbed my desperate queen.

"Can you sense her?" I asked.

"No!" Chlorith wailed.

"Oh boy," I said, tightening my hold on her head. "Uh-oh…"

Chapter 10 – Queen Of Hearts (Dana's P.O.V.)

A missing queen egg was distressing for everyone involved… especially for Elli and Chlorith. The former Starwoman Lessa was dead. So was the former Southern Lord Holder Toric. There'd been no sign of any Abominator uprisings since those two had met their fates. And those who had been subjected to the psychotropics had been well and truly detoxed, additional healing provided by the Skolrom in attendance. So, at this point, who would stand to gain from the theft of a queen egg?

The fact that Chlorith could not detect its location raised several possibilities: it was in a different time… or a different reality. In either case, there was only one conclusion we could draw… a dragon and rider was somehow involved in the theft.

"But why?" Elli sobbed, doing her best to comfort her inconsolable dragon. "Why would someone want to steal one of Chlorith's eggs?"

"I wish I knew," I sighed, shaking my head. "It makes no sense!"

"Those damned Abominators!" Tiffany cursed, kicking some sand out of the way.

"They don't have dragons," Rill argued. "You'd need a dragon to take the egg…"

"Either trans-temporally or trans-dimensionally," Holoo-Ro added.

"Chlorith, did you ever leave the eggs alone?" I asked, gently laying my hand on her neck.

She emphatically shook her head in the negative.

"Then how did you eat?" G'narish exclaimed.

"We brought the food to her," Ryeena replied, shrugging. "She wouldn't leave the eggs, but she had to eat, so…"

"If she never left the clutch," Moreta chimed in as she came over, "then how could someone make off with the egg?"

"By the Fire Falls of Firlea!" I gasped.

"Dana, what is it?" Rill wondered, laying a hand on my shoulder.

The possibility was so remote, so hard to believe… And yet, there was the dream the other night…

"I know what happened," I whispered, cursing myself at the same time.

"Well, don't keep us in suspense!" Elli demanded. "Who took the egg?"

"No one did," I replied, shaking my head.

"What?!" everyone exclaimed.

"Well, the damned thing couldn't move itself!" Tiffany argued.

"Couldn't it?" I chuckled, glancing at the stunned looks on everyone's faces.

"I think that mind meld addled your brains!" Elli scoffed.

"You're all aware of my precog abilities?" I asked.

"The dreams you have?" Ryeena asked.

I nodded. "I had another one the other night."

"Well, who took the damned egg?" G'narish demanded.

"It took itself," I replied, grinning from ear-to-ear.

"What?!" everyone gasped.

"Have you lost your mind?!" Elli exclaimed.

"The dream I had… I saw the egg moving trans-dimensionally… it landed on a world with beings who look like Empyrea."

"Tennin!" Shandra gasped.

"The egg took itself to Empyrea's home world?!" Tiffany gasped. "What the hell for?"

"Elli, Chlorith's clutch… when are they due to hatch?"

"At any moment!" Chlorith answered.

"I know it stretches plausibility to the breaking point," I went on, glancing at those gathered around me.

"Stretches it?!" G'narish exclaimed, his expression saying it all. "Do you realize what you're saying?!"

"Chlorith and the other dragons spent a lot of time jumping between realities," Holoo-Ro spoke up. "And they spent a lot of time in the presence of other Skolrom."

"It may have accelerated the egg's maturation," Rill chimed in, laying a hand on Holoo-Ro's furry shoulder. "Perhaps even accelerating its evolution. But why jump to another reality?"

"The hatchling in the egg is on Search!" Ryeena spluttered, absolutely bug-eyed by the prospect.

"Impossible as it sounds," I said, giving my fellow healer-rider a hug, "I think the hatchling somehow sensed her rider in that other reality… and went to find her!"

"Holy bat shit!" Elli whispered.

"This is crazy, you know that. Right?" G'narish complained.

"It reminds me of a quote, oddly enough, from a storybook character," I chuckled, still amazed by what had transpired.

"Who?" Tiffany wondered.

"Sherlock Holmes," I replied, "a character in a very old Earth series of stories."

"I know the quote!" Elli exclaimed, whirling to face me. "'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth!'"

"You were right, Elli," G'narish whispered, only now considering the possibility. "Holy bat shit!"

"Seeoru, can you retrieve the images from my dream?" I asked.

"Like you did for F-Lessa?!" Tiffany gasped.

Our Kolrom friend did, and, with the assistance of special diagnostic circuits in the psionic dampener, we were able to project a holographic image of what I'd seen in my dream.

"The Kelzor Plains!" Shandra exclaimed, recognizing the location. "That's where we battled F-Lessa's forces! The place where…"

"Where you had thought you had vaporized Empyrea," I added, laying a comforting hand on Shandra's shoulder.

"Seraphea!" Empyrea whispered, wide-eyed as she stared at the prescient image.

"You see someone?" Shandra wondered, kneeling beside her fosterling.

The little Avianis nodded, pointing at a diminutive figure at the center of the image. "My sister!"

_Tarnaa?_ I silently called.

_It is a good image,_ she responded. _I can take us then._

"Tarnaa's right, Dana," Ari chimed in. "Aureath agrees."

"Care to come with us?" I asked, kneeling in front of Elli's precog daughter. "So we don't miss?"

"Now hold on a sec!" Elli protested.

"It's okay, Mom," Ori spoke up, linking arms with her sister. "Ari had a vision the other night…"

"Showing me and Dana there at the moment the egg hatches," Ari added, giving her sister a hug. "We have to go."

Elli glared at me, involving her daughter like that.

"God, I need a hug," she finally relented.

Ari and Ori grabbed Elli from either side, sandwiching their mother between them.

"Please be careful," she whispered, planting a kiss on her daughter's cheek.

"We will!" Ari replied, adding a bear hug for emphasis.

"Empyrea? You coming?" I asked as Ari and I headed out to our dragons.

Three pairs of dragons and riders took to the skies, vanishing _between_ on our way to the planet Tennin. Our arrival did not go unnoticed… thanks in no small measure to the deprivations F-Lessa had inflicted on these people.

"NO!" Empyrea cried out, sliding down mini Ramoth's side. "They are friends!"

"Empyrea?!" an older Avianis exclaimed, pushing through the crowd before sweeping the child up in her embrace. "We thought you lost!"

"I'm fine," she responded, smiling as she nodded to us. "These beings helped us put an end to that mad woman's plans."

"She's dead?!" another Avianis asked.

"Hydrogen sulfide poisoning," I reported, "at the mine where she was serving out her sentence."

"That creature!" yet another exclaimed, raising what looked like a weapon.

"NO!" Empyrea objected, placing herself directly in the weapon's path. "I am her rider now!"

"What?!" several Aviani gasped, their gazes flicking between the child and the beast.

"When we severed the telepathic connection between me and that hateful woman," mini Ramoth said aloud, drawing startled gasps from all the Aviani, "I needed a new rider. This child graciously offered to be that person."

"Where is Seraphea?" Empyrea asked the woman who had first hugged her.

All eyes turned to the side. We could see the massive queen egg a short distance away, rocking furiously as the hatchling within struggled to emerge.

"Tarnaa," I spoke.

Immediately, she and the other dragons approached the egg, humming as dragons always do at a Hatching. The egg responded, rocking even more furiously. With one final rock, the egg stood perfectly up on its wide end, the shell exploding outwards, fragments showering everyone within range.

"Oh, ho!" I exclaimed, grinning ear-to-ear as the queen hatchling walked proudly out of the shattered remains of her egg. "A strong one! She'll make a fine queen!"

Unerringly, the little queen hatchling moved right up to Seraphea, nuzzling the child's tearful, smiling face.

"Lifemate!" the queen spoke.

"Tenith!" the child sighed, rubbing her hand gently up and down the little dragon's muzzle. "How did you find me?"

"It was easy-peasy!" Tenith chuckled, her eyes a slowly whirling, contented blue-green.

The crowd of Aviani seemed confused when Ari and I broke out laughing.

"What happens now?" Seraphea asked, looking a little worried.

"For the moment, let's get your new lifemate fed," I chuckled, planting a tender kiss on the top of her forehead. "We can talk later!"

Given the death and destruction F-Lessa had visited on them in her mad conquest, the Aviani reaction to us was understandably a little strained. But even the most jaded Avianis observer could not dispute the pure love and sense of joy the new dragon pair radiated… their hearts bound to one another by the power of Impression.

It took considerable effort on mine and Empyrea's parts to convince the Aviani elders to allow Seraphea to return with us to our reality. Only there did the pair stand the best chance of fulfilling their unique as yet unknown destinies.

"You be good now," the female Avianis who had hugged Empyrea said as she gave Seraphea one final hug.

"I will," Seraphea replied, tears falling as she returned the hug.

"You're her mother?" I asked, coming up behind Seraphea.

The woman nodded. "Angelica," she introduced herself. "Please look after her for us."

"You have my word," I replied, bowing to her.

Ari, Empyrea, and Seraphea mounted their dragons.

"Do you have the fix, Tenith?" mini Ramoth asked.

"Yes," the little queen replied. "There will be other dragons there?"

"Many others," Ari replied as I was making a final check of the spare harness I had put on Tenith and double-checking that Seraphea was firmly strapped and fastened in. "Including your mother… who is probably out of her mind with worry, right now!"

"Then, we'd better hurry!" Seraphea declared as I boarded Tarnaa and strapped myself in.

Ari and Aureath took the lead position. Mini Ramoth moved to one side of Tenith, taking hold of her harness. Tarnaa did the same on the other side. As the little queen was still too young to fly, mini Ramoth and Tarnaa would do the shifting for her. Then, with one final wave to the crowd, the four dragon pairs vanished _between_.

Wails of distress echoing across the Hatching grounds back at Robinton Cove were instantly replaced by howls of joy as our team emerged from _between_, settling to the ground with a slight 'thud'. Empyrea's little sister was, at first, overwhelmed by all the fuss made over her, but Shandra quickly put her at ease, welcoming her with a hug and a tender kiss on the cheek.

There was plenty of other activity on the Hatching Ground, as well. Apparently, in our absence, the Hatchings had taken place, new dragons and riders scattered all over the place. Bowls of meat were brought over, and Empyrea helped her little sister feed and oil her new lifemate. And no one could mistake the look of absolute love and adoration Seraphea showered on her dragon. It was a perfect pairing!

Chapter 11 – Holooth (Elli's P.O.V.)

It was the most stressful Hatching I had ever attended. Chlorith broadcast her distress on such a wide band that it affected everyone. The candidates were too afraid to go near the eggs for fear Chlorith would harm them. Only Holoo-Ro was brave enough to go near them. He shook, not from fear of the eggs but from fear that he would not be accepted. I could tell by his broadcast that he knew he wouldn't be accepted because he was unworthy of such a bond. He was always unwanted, unloved, and rejected, so he was certain that it would happen again.

"You might be wrong, Holoo," I told him time and again. "You never know until you try."

But today, I was too distressed to reassure him. I knew that only the return of the egg would soothe Chlorith, and until she calmed down, I would be a total basket case.

A shell cracked right down the middle and a little brown dragon waddled out onto the sands crying for his life mate. It wasn't Holoo-Ro. He let out a moan of rejection. I ignored it. I was too busy looking around for Dana, Ariana, Oriana, Empyrea, and their dragons. What was taking them so long?

Another shell cracked and another and another. All the dragonets passed Holoo-Ro by. They had to find their riders because the candidates made no moves towards the eggs. I knew it would be fruitless to tell Chlorith to calm down. I knew she wouldn't until her daughter was returned to her. If I told her to calm down, she'd turn on me, too. She was worse than Ramoth when her queen egg was stolen.

But this egg wasn't stolen; it had transported itself to the planet Tennin. She must have learned how to go between realities while still in utero. Kolrom babies could talk to you while in their eggs, but they couldn't do anything else. Even Holoo-Ro, whose abilities were proven to be stronger than most Skolrom, probably did not have the ability to teleport his egg. This was a precedent, I knew, but what if the little queen decided to stay on Tennin rather than return to Pern with her new rider? How old was Seraphea anyway? Empyrea was only five. Was Seraphea younger or older than five? Empyrea did seem very mature for her age. She must be if she reimpressed Mini Ramoth. I wondered at what age Aviani reached their full maturity. Empyrea was still very much a child, but she didn't act like a human 5-year-old. She had been the youngest sentient ever to become a dragonrider, surpassing even my twins. Who could surpass her? There was no way in hell anyone younger than Empyrea could Impress a dragon.

"Elli, look!" Tiffany tugged at my arm.

"Are they back yet?" I cried anxiously, jerking myself out of my reverie.

"No, but Elli, I think that dragon wants Holoo-Ro."

"You don't have bionic eyes yet!" I cried. "How can you tell?"

"Don't you hear him broadcasting? He has a really loud voice!" Tiffany cried, covering her ears, though the sounds the dragon was making were completely mental.

_I want you, Holoo-Ro!_ the dragon cried. _I need you. You're my life mate._

"Take him, Holoo," I said distractedly.

"But I don't deserve…" he stammered.

"Take him, Holoo," I said more sternly. "Take him before he goes _between_!"

"Are you really for me, Holooth?" he reverently whispered. "I don't deserve you at all! I'm nothing but an orphan who's unloved and unwanted."

_I want you, Holoo-Ro!_ the dragon cried in despair. _I want only you!_

Holoo-Ro turned to face his new life mate. He knelt down and put his arms around Holooth's shoulders, burying his face in his dragon's neck. I was suddenly engulfed by such pure incredulous joy that I had to take a step back. Had Chlorith's egg been returned while Holoo-Ro had Impressed? No, it was Holoo-Ro broadcasting.

"Holoo, tone it down a notch," I said. "You're broadcasting on a wide band again."

"Shouldn't I, though?" Holoo-Ro demanded. "I just achieved something which I thought was impossible for me!"

"I know, but it's distracting," I said. "I don't want people staring at you throughout the hatching. Plus, a lot of people will become telepaths if you don't calm down.. I'll get you some food for Holooth."

Even with Holoo-Ro shielded, the joy continued to radiate throughout the crowd. It was then I that realized it wasn't Holoo-Ro broadcasting on such a wide band but Holooth. He must have the same problem as Holoo-Ro had. I thought Dana should be there to use the psionic dampener on the little bronze so he could go through the same training as his rider. I was so engrossed in the pair, that I didn't notice Dana's return. She and the others had brought Seraphea and her new queen back from Tennin. Everyone else did though. They stared shamelessly at the little girl and her queen. I could tell from the feelings she radiated that she was afraid. I released Holoo-Ro to go tend to her, only to have Holoo-Ro follow me.

_She's scared_, he informed me. _I gotta help her_.

_What you must do is feed your dragon!_ I pathed back.

"It is said that Aviani are actually a branch of the Kolrom race that cannot teleport but can fly," said Seeoru, coming up to us. "We thought them extinct because of the Siloe. We had many subspecies of Skolrom, kind of like your human races, but ours were a lot more drastically different than yours with just skin colors. We had two branches other than the main one: one that could swim and one that could fly. They may have lost the ability to camouflage, but I wouldn't put it past them if they were around others."

"There's only one way to find out," I said excitedly. "Holoo, for the love of all that's holy, feed your dragon! I'm starving!"

"He Impressed?!" Seeoru's excitement shifted to her chumuroo.

"Yes, he did," I grinned, "but I think Holooth has the same problem as his rider. He doesn't know how to broadcast to his rider alone. I think we might need to use the psionic dampener on him the way we did with his rider."

"Yes, I sensed that, too," said Dana. "Lemme get Seraphea settled in, and then we'll go to work on him."

Chapter 12 – The Progenitor (Dana's P.O.V.)

Actually, I didn't need to lift a finger. Now that her queen hatchling had returned, Chlorith put on her best mothering airs, taking charge of Holoo-Ro and Holooth. This was one time that the Eridani protocol giving dragons the ability to speak came in handy; Elli's queen imperiously demanding food be brought for her child. There were plenty of hands around to help, Chlorith doing her level best to guide the little bronze and his rider. It wasn't long before Holooth had his wide band pathing under control, much to everyone's relief. That left me free to do my level best to take care of Seraphea and Tenith and find her a warm, loving home while she was with us.

This is where Elli's daughter, Raeana, came into the mix. She had come to Robinton Cove, drawn by the strong pathing being broadcast by Holooth… and Chlorith! Something clicked between her and Seraphea the moment their eyes met… almost like Impression. The diminutive Avianis instantly warmed up to Raeana, seeking out her company… and her advice about everything related to the care and feeding of her lifemate! It was a match made in Heaven! As senior Weyrwoman at Igen Weyr, Raeana was in the perfect position to take Seraphea… under her wing and show her the ropes!

Once Tenith had been properly fed and oiled, she decided to curl up next to her mother. Chlorith didn't mind in the least, draping one wing protectively over her child.

That left me free to see to Seraphea's health and welfare. Hand in hand with her foster Mom, the three of us made our way over to the hospital for a complete physical of the little Avianis. Unlike the medieval days of old Earth where poking and prodding, drawing blood, and other unpleasantries were the norm, the med scanners we now employed were completely non-intrusive, putting everyone, especially Seraphea, at ease.

"Hmm?" I whispered, looking up from the med scanner controls.

Alarms were going off, indicating something was up. But what? It was supposed to be a routine med scan of Seraphea to make certain she was healthy and not carrying any sort of diseases which might be harmful to the residents of this reality. But she appeared nervous, maybe even a little afraid, so Raeana had moved over next to her, taking her by the hand and sitting there with the little Avianis. However, the moment Elli's daughter had moved within range of the scanning beam, the alarms had started to sound.

"Is something wrong?" Raeana wondered, glancing briefly in my direction.

"Not sure yet," I spoke in response, double-checking the scanner's settings. "Seraphea, I need your friend, Raeana, to step away a sec. Okay?"

Silently, Empyrea's sister nodded, her wings twitching nervously. The moment Raeana was out of range, the alarms stopped.

"What's going on?" Rae wondered.

"I'll know in a moment," I replied, resetting the scanner. "Okay, go sit with Seraphea."

Raeana did… and the alarms returned. When I saw the diagnostic message that popped up on the screen, I nearly leaped off my seat in astonishment! I fine-tuned the scanner's settings and nearly fell off that same seat in shock!

"Dana, what is it?" Raeana asked, nervously glancing between her little charge and me.

I think my bugged-out eyes gave it away.

"By the Fire Falls of Firlea!" I whispered, hands trembling. "It can't be!"

"Rae, I'm scared!" Seraphea wept, moving closer to Elli's daughter.

It took me a moment to overcome my astonishment before I could meet their gazes.

"Seraphea, do you know what DNA is?" I asked.

Nervously, she shook her head in the negative.

"It's essentially a code," I explained, trying to keep the discussion of the complexities of such a hard to follow science as simple as possible. "Each of us has this chemical code inside us. That code determines whether we're a boy or a girl, whether we have blonde hair or, as in your case, beautiful feathers, even how tall or small we're supposed to be. Do you understand so far?"

Seraphea nodded.

"Every living thing is made up of DNA," I went on, "plants, animals…"

"Humans," Raeana offered, "like Dana and I."

"Even our dragons?" Seraphea asked.

I nodded.

"How that DNA is put together determines what sort of creature or plant you get," I continued, still shaking my head at the scanner's readings. "Now while it is possible for creatures as diverse as humans, dragons, or even Aviani to have numerous matching base pairs of DNA… the scanner readings on the two of you is showing more matching base pairs than would be statistically possible."

"What does that mean?" Raeana asked.

It took me a moment before I could say, "Somewhere in our recent evolutionary past, our races had a common ancestor!"

"WHAT?!" Raeana gasped, her eyes threatening to pop from their sockets.

"What's wrong?" Seraphea asked, growing more frightened by Raeana's reaction.

I stepped around the console and knelt in front of Seraphea, taking her other hand in mind.

"What it means, little one," I whispered, unexpected tears flowing down my face, "is that our two races came from the same place!"

"But we don't look the same!" Seraphea gasped.

"Not now, no," I had to agree, "but at one point in our distant past, we did!"

"Oh, my God!" Raeana hissed, nearly speechless from this latest revelation. "When the others hear about this…"

Chuckling, I sighed, "They already know!"

When Raeana turned a puzzled expression my way, I nodded towards the window… and all the dragons gathered just outside.

"Thanks to Seeoru and the other Skolrom," I chuckled in resignation, "our dragons have been feverishly broadcasting our conversation. By now, the entire planet will have heard!"

Right on cue, Elli and the others came bursting into the room.

"Dana, we…" she started to say, but I held up my hand, chuckling all the while.

"You're certain about the scan results?" Rill asked, her tone almost begging me to deny it.

I nodded. "There's no doubt. I triple-checked the results. There's statistically no way there could be that many matching base pairs without some sort of common ancestor."

"Sweet Jesus!" Elli whispered. Gasping suddenly, Elli whirled to Seeoru. "Didn't you once tell me the Aviani were a branch of the Skolrom?"

Even Seeoru was having trouble accepting this latest revelation. "We thought they had been killed off by the Siloe!" Kneeling in front of the child and taking her trembling hand in her own, she added, "I am so happy to learn we were wrong!"

Sobbing, Seraphea threw her arms around Seeoru's neck, hugging her tightly.

I'm not sure why I looked at the med scanner at that precise moment, but when I did, the base pair matches had fallen to within statistical probabilities limits. Why, then, were the numbers so much higher with Raeana?

"Ancestors!" I gasped, heart racing with this new possibility.

"Dana, what's wrong?" Moreta wondered, noting the look of astonishment on my face.

I knelt in front of Seraphea, meeting her gaze squarely. "I had not thought beings such as you and your sister existed, Seraphea… except perhaps in stories I'd read!"

Seraphea smiled, reaching a hand out to me.

Taking her hand, I said, "I want to check something."

"What?" she asked.

"When Seeoru was with you," I explained, pointing back at the med scanner, "I noticed the number of matching base pairs fell back to within statistical limits. But when Raeana was with you, the numbers went way up."

"I don't understand," Seraphea complained, shaking her feather-topped head.

"All of us here are from the current time frame," I tried to explain, pointing around the room, "except for one."

"Wait, what?!" Elli exclaimed as I turned my gaze to her. "What does any of this have to do with me?"

"You're not from this timeline originally," I said, rising to my feet. "Thanks to Ruth's impulsiveness, you were brought here from the early 21st century on Earth, millennia before any of us were even born."

"You're not making any sense!" Elli protested, backing up a step or two.

"Your daughter, Raeana, was the first clue," I responded, gesturing back towards her and Seraphea. "The moment she stepped into the scanning beam of the med scanner, the matching base pairs alarm went off!"

"Why were you even looking for that?" Elli asked.

Chuckling, I admitted, "I hadn't. I dropped my stylus while I was entering some other data, and it clattered onto the console, accidentally activating the matching base pairs diagnostic."

"How does this have anything to do with me?" Elli wanted to know.

"Raeana inherited those DNA base pairs from you," I softly replied, taking one of her trembling hands in my own. "I'd like to see what the results would be if we scanned you and Seraphea. It could be important."

Gulping nervously, Elli glanced about the room, meeting the gazes of G'narish, Ori, Ari, Seeoru, Holoo-Ro, Empyrea, and finally Seraphea. The newest Avianis among us walked over, taking Elli's other hand.

"I trust her," Seraphea softly spoke, squeezing Elli's hand.

"So do I," Holoo-Ro added, coming up behind Seraphea, carefully placing his hand on one of her shoulders.

"Seraphea…" I spoke, nodding to the examination station as I moved around to the med scanner control panel.

Gulping nervously, Elli allowed Seraphea to lead her over to where I needed them. The moment the two stepped within range of the scanner, the alarm board went crazy!

"What's going on?" Elli nervously inquired.

Activating the holoprojector, I displayed the base pairs results of Seraphea and Raeana.

"This was the reading a moment ago when I accidentally scanned your daughter and our latest queen rider," I explained, highlighting the scan numbers in the projection. "Though I hadn't been deliberately checking for this, the accidental readings clearly showed matching base pair numbers that exceeded statistical probability by a significant amount."

"Meaning?" Elli wanted to know.

"There's a strong possibility that our two races in the distant past had a common ancestor," I replied, smiling, "a progenitor."

"A what?!" G'narish stammered, puzzled by the new word.

"Progeny refers to our children, our descendants," I explained, nodding. "The progenitor refers to the parents of those children."

"So my mom would be my progenitor!" Raeana shouted, pointing from herself to Elli.

"And Raeana is one of her progeny!" Empyrea chimed in.

I nodded. "Now here's the scan results of Seraphea and Elli."

The second image came up beside the first, and everyone gasped at the much larger matching base pairs total.

"That's nearly a factor of ten higher!" Moreta exclaimed.

I nodded again. "Providing even stronger evidence that somewhere in the distant past of our races, we had a common ancestor."

"We're all family!" Seraphea gleefully declared, clapping her hands.

"Holy shit!" Elli hissed, bug-eyed by the evidence.

"Who'd'a thunk it?" Tiffany chuckled.

"And speaking of family," I said, shutting down the holoprojector, "Empyrea calls you her little sister, but the bioscans indicate you're actually older than her."

Seraphea nodded. "When I was a young fledgling, I came down with an illness that stunted my growth."

"How old are you?" Elli inquired once she got over the shock the scans revealed.

"Nine," Seraphea replied, giving Elli's arm a hug. "Empyrea calls me that because I am her **'little'** sister. There was no cure for the illness."

"Well, maybe now we can do something about that," Elli said, smiling at the little avianis. "Between the Skolrom healing talents and the Eridani protocols we've been blessed with, we should be able to fix that. What about it, Empyrea? Would you like that?"

Empyrea's response was to practically fly to Elli, throwing her tiny arms around Elli's neck and hugging her tightly.

"I'll take that as a yes!" Seeoru chuckled.

"Then, get to it!" Raeana ordered. "I've got two dragonriders looking for a place to settle, and I have a nice pair of weyrs waiting for them at Igen Weyr!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Elli responded, snapping her daughter a sharp salute!

Chapter 13 - The Final Strike (Elli's P.O.V.)

I didn't understand what all this meant. Was I to have sex with a bird? Of course not. Humans and birds did not breed. There was no way I could bear any more young as I was now definitely in the throes of menopause, and it showed in my mood on a daily basis. I was having more mood swings than I had when I was going through puberty. There was no way in hell I could get pregnant again. Paul and Ezra were my youngest children. They were almost 3 months now, and they needed their mama. I was not going back in time and breeding alien species. I could have killed Dana for making that suggestion. Though she hadn't come out and said it aloud, I was pretty sure the idea was in her brain, and I resented her fiercely for it. There was also no way I was letting Holoo-Ro out of my sight! He was my foster son, and if there were such a thing as adoption on Pern, I'd most certainly adopt him. He and I were linked to each other almost as much as we were to our dragons. The same held true for Empyrea and Seraphea. When Raeana made the announcement that she had two weyrs ready at Igen, they burst into tears and clung to each other! They had been separated once; they would not be separated again! I had the feeling the two Avianis girls had PTSD due to the fact that they had lived in a war zone for four Turns, and they'd already been separated once when Chlorith had snagged Empyrea out of the air a Turn ago. Seraphea had been eight then, and she had taken her sister's supposed death harder than anyone else in her family. Being reunited with her was a miracle for both girls.

After Sera's healing, I asked Raeana which kind of weyrs she meant. Holoo-Ro desperately wanted to stay with me and work in the hospital. I felt he was better off there because of his abilities, and Holooth could get training on how to keep his broadcast to those who were supposed to hear dragons, not every single person on Pern.

"There're only three queens presently at Igen, and there're five queens' weyrs," said Raeana. "Mini Ramoth can have a taste of what it's like to fight Thread."

"No she can't!" I argued. "Empyrea's five; you need to be 16 to fight Thread no matter how old your dragon is. Ariana and Oriana decided not to fight Thread after all. They've waited so long that the fervor has gone out of them. They aspire to be healers now, and they've had contact with Skolrom, so they have the healing gift. We don't fight Thread here. Our duties are too numerous for us to devote time to drill and fight Falls. Besides, I think it'd be too traumatic for Holoo-Ro to fight Thread. He'd have to watch minds wink out if someone died of Threadscore."

"I see what you mean," Raeana said. "There's no way in hell I'd separate you from my siblings, but Sera is kind of my daughter now, and I can't just leave her like you can't leave Holoo."

"I'm so sorry I left you at Igen," I wept. "You're the only child I had on Earth, so you're very special to me. So what if you have intellectual disabilities? So what if you can't spell? You've grown a lot smarter since you came here. I remember you poring over all those AIVAS files like they were gonna crash on you. You wanted to know everything about your new home. If you didn't comprehend it, you asked what it meant. If I couldn't help you, Menolly was always there. I know I left you at the Harper Hall for three Turns before you Impressed Miroirth, but you needed specialized help that I couldn't give you."

"I know, Mom, I know," she said. "At least I have Calentia back now. A'mer didn't want to learn at Robinton Cove; he wanted to remain Igen's Weyr Healer."

"I know, Raeana, I know," I repeated.

"Just come see us anytime. We'd really welcome you as a healer here after the Pass is over, and that will be in less than a Turn."

"I don't want to stay at Igen Weyr for Christmas," Raeana complained. "I want to join the Robinton Cove festivities. Then I can hear you play piano, and I can be with my family."

"Well, of course you can come to Robinton Cove for Christmas!" I cried, flinging my arms around my eldest daughter. "You, G'bare, and the children are more than welcome to join us! You have Ava, Anja, and Ellianne, am I correct?"

"Don't forget Gorae and David, and I'm carrying a third son, and his name will be Ganarisher."

"You didn't tell me you were pregnant!" I cried. "I've never seen you not pregnant before, so I don't know what you're supposed to look like when you aren't."

"I was gonna tell you at Christmas, because Hatchings are always so chaotic."

"You're right about that!" I muttered under my breath.

It was Christmas Day, and the cove was in utter chaos. Both Mom and Manora had come down with the flu, so it was up to the healers to do all the cooking. We had not allowed for any drudges at the hospital or in our own houses, as Dana believed drudgery was akin to slavery.

If we'd have been born on Pern, Raeana would have been a drudge, I thought. Only Menolly saw her true potential. She was hopeless at singing, so she would not have been a good Harper, but she was very tech savvy. All that ended at the age of 14 when she had become a dragonrider. She could speak to all dragons, and her smarts were growing daily. I often thought Miroirth was teaching her instead of what dragons and riders usually do. That was all thanks to Chlorith, who had the idea of teaching all the other dragons what we riders knew. Raeana had become very good at cooking, and, unlike me, she loved it. She had her father's cooking sense, and she doctored up every dish she made. Everyone was clamoring for Raeana's dishes. She was here now, helping out with the cooking. Neither Dana nor I could cook, so we were watching the others "ooh" and "ahh" over Raeana's deft hands as she presided over two different dishes at once.

"Who knew a dragonrider could cook like that!" they all breathed rapturously.

I was proud of her, not just because she was a dragonrider, but also because she was my daughter. She had beaten all the odds and come out on top.

Tiffany was helping her. She had cooked exotic dishes before, so she knew what she was doing. I went to the piano and started playing Christmas carols, but I couldn't concentrate with all the noise going on in the kitchen. I couldn't handle all the noise, so I decided to go home and rest for a while with an audiobook.

It was like a sonic boom hit my head. I reeled back, my head spinning, gut-wrenching hunger gnawing at my insides like beavers gnawing at wood. I fell to the ground in a dead faint, only to be trampled by a crazed dragonet. I was told later that he had made a few gouges in me, causing the ground around us to turn crimson. Something had distressed Holooth deeply, and he had reacted to it by leaving his food bowl and running around like a crazed zebra with wings. He had inadvertently broadcast his hunger all around, so that everyone was running wildly toward the half-cooked dishes of food, so no one noticed I was missing.

He had severed several arteries in his mad dash around me, and I was lucky to be alive. We found out later what the trouble was. A feline had smelled Holooth's food and had run after him, leaving him severely wounded. He had run all over the place to get away from the feline, which had also severed an artery. The ground was thick with blood and ichor. He finally collapsed on top of me so that our blood mixed. Dana sutured us as best she could, because we needed to stop the bleeding before the Skolrom could work their magic. Holoo-Ro was stricken with grief. How could his beloved Holooth have done such a horrific thing? Felines were not telepathic, so he hadn't sensed the danger. Seeoru claimed she could talk to animals, but something about that particular feline had stumped the strongest empath and telepath we had. He had not been able to sense it at all. The dragons had to be fed outside, as the only building equipped to handle dragons was the hospital, and only certain rooms served that purpose. Holooth had bugled a warning, but he had not been fast enough. His sonic boom of a call had been the warning, but no one was able to respond to it for its volume.

When I awoke, I was in a warm, comfortable bed, and I felt lousy. I could hear sniffling all around me, as though I were at a funeral. I heard Seeoru's suppressed croons, Dana's multi-sniffled weeping, and G'narish's muffled sobs. I opened my eyes and saw Holoo-Ro shaking, his face hidden in his hands, tears trickling between his fingers.

"What happened?"

My voice couldn't come out. I cleared my throat and began coughing. I couldn't stop.

"Water!" I gasped between coughs. "Get me some water!"

"She doesn't have dragon eyes!" Seeoru's telepathic whisper seemed louder to me than Holooth's sonic boom.

"She's still burning up with fever!" Dana whispered aloud, putting a gentle hand on my forehead.

"Oh shards and shells!" G'narish wept. "Don't leave me, Elli! Please, don't leave me! I love you!"

"I love you too, G'narish," I whispered, having stopped coughing. "Let me sit up."

"You're still too weak to sit up," Dana said through her tears. "You need to drink some fellis juice and go back to sleep."

"I want to comfort those around me," I said. "I need to reassure them that I'm okay."

"But you're not okay yet," Dana whispered. "Just because you're awake doesn't mean you're out of the woods."

She put a straw to my mouth and bade me drink it. It was bitter and I tried to spit it out.

"Swallow it, Elli," I heard a new voice say. "I need you to swallow it so you can sleep and we can heal you."

"Twin?" I tried to say, but I was already falling asleep.

The next thing I knew, there were hands running up and down my body. The hands were trembling uncontrollably, but I was feeling stronger. I opened my eyes, and there was my faithful son.

"Holoo?" I croaked. "Is that you?"

"Gelu!" he cried, prostrating himself on top of me.

"Holoo, it's okay. I forgive you. You couldn't sense the feline because animals aren't telepathic."

"Yes, they are!" sobbed Holoo-Ro. "I can always sense animals! Why the hell couldn't I sense this one?"

"It came at me like a bat out of Hell!" Holooth said, using human speech for the first time. "This is all my fucking fault!"

That was the first time I'd ever heard a dragon swear, whether Earthling oaths or Pernese. I was shocked beyond all measure that he would swear at all.

"It's that stupid feline's fault." I said. "I hope that cat was put down!"

"That was no cat," Dana said solemnly.

"What?" I demanded. "Holoo-Ro told me it was a feline."

"A robot feline that was designed to go off on Christmas Day," said Holooth.

"What was its objective?" I asked in a flat voice.

"To kill you and anyone else that got in its path," said Dana. "F-Lessa hid it under camouflage in the bushes, and it was to uncloak itself only when it was ready to attack."

"Like a time bomb?" I asked.

"Yes, but instead of attacking you directly, it ran at Holooth and sprayed a colorless, odorless chemical in the air that caused Holooth to go crazy. Then, it ran him down, and in his mad rush to get away, he trampled you. She wanted psychological revenge as well as physical. The robot wouldn't have killed you directly; whoever it attacked would. That dragon would have to live the rest of his life knowing that he had harmed a sentient being. I think F-Lessa wanted the dragon to suicide on his own so whichever rider he might have would feel the same deep pain as she did. She knew your favorite holiday was Christmas so she planned the attack for then. Oh, This is all my fault! I should've realized she'd left a boobytrap! I never saw the thing!"

"Of course you wouldn't if it was camouflaged!" I cried impatiently.

"There are ways to sense camouflaged people," Dana sobbed.

"Which we don't have, as we're more backward than the FSP or the Starworld, which F-Lessa knew full well." I impatiently spoke.

"Let me sit up," I said. "I have to see my Chlorith."

"You're not strong enough," Dana argued.

"I need to see my dragon!" I shouted. "She's keening!"

"I know she is, but you need to get better first."

"Just tell her already!" Holoo-Ro cried.

"Tell me what?" I demanded.

"I'll let you sit up," Dana said grudgingly.

Slowly, tremulously, I sat up. Something flapped on my shoulders, and I seemed to float upwards.

"I'm floating off the ground!" I said. "Is that just the fever, or did I inherit some abilities from Holooth?"

"You're really floating," Dana said sadly. "Flap your wings."

"I don't have wings," I told her. Under my breath, I added, "I must be delirious."

"You're not delirious," Seeoru spoke. "Feel yourself."

Tremulously, I ran my hands up and down my body. There was no skin on my bones. Instead, my body was covered in feathers!

"What the actual fuck!" I screamed, sending myself into a fit of coughing.

I stretched my feet out and landed on the floor beside my bed. I felt dizzy. I felt around for the mattress and sank onto it.

"What the shards happened to me?"

"Apparently that chemical in the robot feline distorted the blood that flowed between you and Holooth," Seeoru softly spoke. "Though it did not affect Holooth, it did a number on you. Instead of dragon eyes, you got wings, but instead of dragon hide, the chemical distorted the DNA in the dragon blood that spilled into your open wounds and made it bird like. I don't know why it did not affect Holooth, but perhaps dragon hide is stronger than human skin."

"So I'm gonna constantly be shedding feathers the rest of my life!" I shouted.

"Birds don't molt constantly!" Dana said consolingly.

"I'm not going back in time, no way!" I said in a low, menacing tone. "I'm not leaving Chlorith! Tennin did not have a dragon population of its own. If it had, Sera and Pyrea wouldn't have been so afraid of dragons in the first place!"

"You might not go back in time," Dana said, "but one of your descendants might."

"I'm too old to bear children!" I howled. "I'm 56 years old! I'm going through menopause!"

"Your chemical makeup may have changed, El," said G'Narish in a shaky voice. "You might have the makeup of a much younger woman now."

"I won't be able to mate with you!" I sobbed.

"You're still humanoid," Seeoru said gently. "Aviani might not have mated with anyone outside their race before, but they would probably have to in order to begin their race.

"I wish that robot had attacked me, too!" sobbed G'narish. "Then I could've stayed with the love of my life!"

I stood up shakily, intending to run to G'narish, but I jumped instead and rose high into the air. Without being told to, I flapped my wings and flew forward, landing gracefully a few feet away from where I had started, straight into G'narish's arms.

"I promised you I'd never leave you," I whispered softly in his ear. "I will keep that promise for as long as I live!"

"What will happen to us?" G'narish sobbed.

"We'll survive," I said flatly. "I've always wanted to fly, but I never wanted this."

"You'd better see Holooth and Chlorith but be careful. Your fever hasn't broken yet," said Dana as I took off toward Chlorith's weyr.

"Life mate!" she shrieked as I flew in for a landing. "You're all right! But you won't need me anymore!"

She began to cry in earnest. No tears fell of course, but the noises she was making suggested that if tears could fall, they would be deluging down her cheeks.

"I may be able to fly and teleport on my own," I quietly spoke; "but that doesn't mean I don't need you, my precious darling heart!"

I cried, throwing both arms and wings around her. She immediately stopped weeping as a sudden warmth flowed through the two of us. It was even better than Impression. It was a healing of all ailments that left me exhausted. I curled up in her forelegs and fell instantly asleep without the help of either fellis juice, music, or an audiobook.

When I next woke, I found the muzzle of an anxious dragonet nuzzling me. The gut-wrenching sorrow suggested that the dragonet was Holooth. I rolled over in Chlorith's forelegs and reached my wings out to him. To my surprise, I found that they were large enough to cradle him. They probably could have cradled Chlorith's whole body. I held him tightly, rocking him back-and-forth, until his keening subsided, and he lay, sleeping, in the comfortable bed my wings made for him. Somehow, I knew that this was the way Avianis mothers comforted their young. I suddenly wanted to enfold all my human children in my wings and rock them to sleep. I wanted to sing to them like a bird. Aviani had human voices but they seemed to chirp. I knew they'd have no problems learning to whistle. They probably did that before they spoke.

"It's not your fault, dear Holooth." I whispered to his sleeping form.

Just at that moment, Holoo-Ro came barreling out of the hospital, running faster than a messenger on an urgent errand.

"Gelu!" he sobbed, throwing himself down by me, crooning fit to burst. "You're all right! Why didn't you come back?"

"I fell asleep healing Chlorith," I said. "Then Holooth woke me up. I had to heal him too."

"What you have to do is rest!" Holoo-Ro said in a bossy tone he'd never used before in my presence.

"I'm fine, son," I said. "Healing is exhausting work."

"It's not supposed to be," he argued. "Now you take some fellis juice and go back to bed!"

He lifted me bodily off the ground and set me back down again so fast that my whole body was jarred.

"You're not hot anymore!" he cried jubilantly. "You really are cured!"

Then he saw his dragon enfolded in my wings and gasped.

"That's what the Aviani do," he breathed. "Both Seraphea and Empyrea have strong memories of their mother rocking them to sleep and healing their wounds that way."

"It just seemed like the right thing to do," I said. "I still don't like that I have feathers though. I'm gonna have a big mess to clean up when I molt."

"And can you imagine the bathing rooms you'll go in when you're molting?" Holoo-Ro said sympathetically.

"You're not helping," I said in mock sternness.

"It's gonna take a lot of getting used to," he said, "but I know you'll be able to do it. I have faith in you, Gelu!"

"As do I, twin," said Tiffany, who must have followed Holoo-Ro out into the courtyard.

"And I," added Dana and Seeoru in unison.

"Where are my children?" I asked plaintively.

"I'll get 'em," said G'narish, and he reluctantly walked away.

Within minutes all my children were there, including Raeana.

"She hasn't left Robinton Cove since you had your accident," said G'narish as I enfolded all my children in my great wings.

I let my love and strength flow into them, and they, in turn, poured their love and strength into me. Even Paul and Ezra contributed, but their offerings were physical, not mental.

"When are we going to perfect the disposable diaper?" I moaned.

Gabriel and Linda were now potty trained, but barely so. Only Paul and Ezra wore diapers, as they were nowhere near being of potty training age.

"How long has it been since Christmas?" I begged.

"It's June 25th," said Raeana.

"Can we please celebrate early?" I begged. "I missed Christmas again!"

"We didn't even celebrate Christmas," Dana said gently, "because you were on the verge of death. I didn't think it fair that we should be happy when you were dying."

"That's settled then!" I said, leaping to my feet and scattering children all over the place. "We'll celebrate now!"

And that's exactly what we did.

Chapter 14 - Verschlagen (Dana's P.O.V.)

Things at Robinton Cove were certainly taking some rather bizarre and unexpected turns lately. Especially where the former Starwoman Lessa was concerned.

I had personally seen the anti-personnel disruptor mines she had used to booby-trap the drug stashes. Why it had never occurred to me that she would resort to other boobytraps left me feeling sick to my core and totally infuriated. A clumsy mistake like that had cost some of my friends from the Star Service their lives on one first contact mission. That same sort of mistake had nearly cost Elli her life.

Elli's metamorphosis was also a concern. She had not asked for it. Was it reversible? Would she want it reversed? Many questions to answer.

So, I started with the Eridani protocols Concordantrix Zigrill had gifted me with. Elli's accidental transformation was essentially a replication of what I had experienced with Wirenth. As such, both in theory could be reversed by application of the proper Eridani protocols. Because of my gender orientation, I had actually welcomed the changes I had undergone. Elli, on the other hand, had been the victim of that terrifying attack. Even more of a concern was her avian-like development. Had the fire-lizards, the de facto progenitors of the dragons, at one time in the past been more bird-like? It might explain what happened to Elli. It also pointed to the fact that whatever that chemical had been that the creature had used, it was very potent… a fact that might actually be used to locate the one that got away… and locate others if more were planted.

After several weeks of poring over the Eridani protocols, I was able to lay out plans to reverse Elli's transformation… along with several other contingency plans in case she wanted some other alteration. Then, Tarnaa and I made the trans-dimensional jump to the former Starwoman's reality in order to speak with current Starwoman Kylara.

When I finished describing what had been reported about the incident, Ky looked like she was about to explode, her face positively crimson with rage.

"A sharding P.U.M.A.!" she cursed, pounding her fist on the table.

"But not a live one," I absently remarked, shaking my head, "though it bore a striking resemblance to its Earth namesake."

"What are you talking about?" Ky wondered, puzzled by my comment.

"A puma," I explained. "It's another name for a mountain lion… the same creature that our southern felines were based on."

Ky broke out laughing.

"What's so funny?" I asked, confused.

"Sorry," Ky chuckled, raising her hands in surrender. "Puma stands for Programmable Undercover Mechanized Assassin… P.U.M.A. for short."

I groaned at the irony of the acronym. "Oh, sharding Hell! If I wasn't so damned pissed at that devil woman, this would almost be funny."

Glancing up at Ky, I asked, "This technology comes from your reality. Do you know of any way to detect them? We haven't found the first one… it ran off before we could deal with it. And if she's planted more than one of those damned devices, we need to find them."

"They're nearly impossible to locate," Ky sighed, shaking her head. "They come equipped with optical camouflage."

"Shaffit!" I cursed.

I paused a moment, considering what I had learned about the powerful chemical that first device had contained. And, then, another idea popped into my head. "What about the device's power source?"

"The power core?" Ky wondered. "What about it?"

"It can't be simple battery power," I surmised, considering the weapon's proposed use. "That could drain over time, rendering the puma useless. What about a miniature anti-matter reactor? That conceivably could last decades, making the puma particularly lethal, especially if it is programmed to self-destruct rather than be captured."

"Yeah, I see what you mean," Ky grunted.

Even a minute amount of anti-matter, say the size of a cherry, could cause a blast vaporizing everything within a radius of several hundred meters.

"I'm also curious about the chemical this puma sprayed," I went on. "As volatile as it is, I'm thinking we can scan for and detect it, following the scent back to its source."

"There's also infrared radiation," Ky offered, snapping her fingers. "You can't hide that with optical camouflage. The damned thing, even in standby mode, has to be generating some power…"

"And heat," I chimed in, nodding.

"Yes," Ky said, returning the nod, "as the weapon's internal circuits draw power to run the controlling mechanisms."

"So, we have two potential means of detecting the P.U.M.A.s," I said, considering what we were facing. "If we do a tight-beam scan for the volatile the P.U.M.A. was using, we may be able to follow the damned thing back to its hiding place."

"What then?" Ky wondered.

"We can't simply blast it," I muttered. "That might trigger the self-destruct mode." Glancing over at Ky, I asked, "Got anything that'll generate an electromagnetic pulse?"

Electromagnetic Pulse… also known as E.M.P.. During the ancient days of old Earth, when nuclear weapons were all the rage, a biproduct of the nuclear explosion was a powerful electromagnetic pulse. Detonated high in the atmosphere, the EMP could be used to disrupt radio communications. At close range, the EMP could fry electronic circuitry.

Ky grinned, her eyes sparkling with almost malevolent glee. "G.E.M.P.s. Grenade – Electro Magnetic Pulse. I see where you're going with this. Once we spot the P.U.M.A., we use the grenade to fry its controlling circuits…"

"Then, once it's incapacitated," I went on, "we vaporize it with our blasters."

"I'm in!" Ky exclaimed, leaping up from her seat.

F-Lessa had been busy back in our reality. With the help of med scanner equipped healer-riders searching for the telltale volatile sensor reading, we were able to locate nearly a dozen of those damned verschlagener devices, each cleverly hidden near prominent weyrs, Fort Hold, Landing, and even Robinton Cove! Goldie took particular glee dropping the G.E.M.P. on the beast that had rampaged through Robinton Cove, frying its controlling circuits when the grenade went off. With a guttural growl, I drew my blaster and vaporized the damned thing. Several blaster-equipped riders from Starwoman Kylara's reality jubilantly dealt with the remainder, bringing an end to F-Lessa's diabolical plan.

With that exasperating headache finally dealt with, I turned my attention back to Elli's stunning and unexpected transformation.

"I grant you that your new unique healing abilities have already been a boon to our work here," I said to her as we discussed her situation, "but I also sense that you aren't entirely comfortable with the changes."

"First, there was Holoo-Ro healing my optic nerve," Elli sighed, giving her foster son's hand a gentle squeeze, "then that damned attack that nearly cost me my life. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy to finally be able to see like everyone else does. Back on Earth, there was no hope of that ever happening. Thank you, dear!"

"Gelu!" Holoo-Ro sighed contentedly, returning Elli's gentle squeeze.

"It's going to take some getting used to," Elli went on.

"And your transformation?" I asked, getting down to the point. "I did a thorough review of the Eridani protocols Concordantrix Zigrill gave me. What happened to you can be undone, but it'll be up to you to choose."

"You also said that the changes could be modified?" Elli spoke, giving her weyrmate G'narish's hand a squeeze.

I nodded. "Human skin instead of feathers, over arms and legs, maybe leaving the feathers on your wings and head. It's all just genetic manipulation. As it involves you directly, I will leave the choices up to you."

"G'narish?" Elli wept, tears falling.

"It's up to you, my love," he replied, hugging her tightly.

"Holoo?" she asked, the tears continuing unabated.

"I love you, Gelu," he wept, holding her hand to his cheek. "That won't change, even if you do."

Sobbing, Elli nodded, the rest of her family gathering around to give them all a hug.

Chapter 15 – Twindom (Elli's P.O.V.)

"I'll keep the wings," I finally decided, "but the feathers have to go! I really don't want to clean up after myself when I'm molting, but I would still like to be considered young, and I've gotten used to flying. I can race and dance with my Chlorith instead of having to put unnecessary weight on her."

"Your weight is not unnecessary!" Chlorith bellowed from the heights.

She couldn't physically hear what I was saying, but she could hear the thoughts that went with what I was saying.

"Besides," she went on, "you won't need me anymore if you can fly, teleport, and use telekinesis."

And the dragon began to keen loud and long. I teleported to her side.

"There, there, my precious love!" I crooned to her. "It's okay. I'll still need you because you're my best friend! You're the only one who doesn't judge every little action I take. People may not say it aloud, but they have opinions. You don't. I'll still ride you because that's what a dragonrider does. But if, for example, you're in clutch, and I need to get somewhere fast, I won't have to rely on Gyarmath to take me when he'd probably rather stay with his children. Besides, what's the point of dancing and racing if I have no one to dance and race with. And I can do this."

I spread my wings and completely enfolded my dragon in them. Gradually, her sobs subsided, and she relaxed in my wings.

"Why don't dragons do the same thing?" Chlorith wanted to know. "We always use our forelegs."

"Perhaps your wings are too big to use as comforting tools," I ponderously spoke.

Chlorith nodded in agreement.

"Never thought of that before," she said, modulating her voice to a near whisper so as not to broadcast our private conversation to everyone at the hospital.

"You don't have to be that quiet," I whispered back, smiling.

"You'd better get back to the others," she said reluctantly. "They're probably all worried about you."

"I can send them a message," I told her. "You need me more right now than they do."

I was about to broadcast a telepathic message to my friends and family that I would be spending the rest of the day with my Chlorith when I heard the tell-tale sounds of a feline running up to meet us. There was something about this feline that gave me the heebie-jeebies. I saw an extra appendage that shouldn't have been there, just like the one that had attacked Holooth.

"Puma!" I screamed.

The first one at my side was Tiffany as the P.U.M.A. went straight for Chlorith. I wanted to protect her but she stampeded away from me. She took flight, but the P.U.M.A. took off after her. A flying feline!? That was something new!

_Dana!_ I screamed in my head. _We got another one! This one can fly!_

Dana hastily put down the scalpel she was about to use and teleported to us, but, too late! Chlorith had trampled Tiffany in her efforts to save her while the P.U.M.A. attacked her with full force. She opened up a whole bunch of cuts while she was being chewed up like a fancy feast dinner. Dana got out her blaster, but she couldn't vaporize the P.U.M.A. while it was attacking Chlorith. She put it on stun mode and stunned both of them, realizing only then that Tiffany was underneath the dragon.

"By the Fire Falls of Firlea!" Dana cried.

For the first time in her life, she used TK to lift Chlorith off Tiffany. Blood and ichor gushed everywhere, mixing on the ground as it did that fateful Christmas Day when I was attacked.

"Lemme see if I can heal her before anything else happens!" said Dana, vaporizing the P.U.M.A. with one fluid motion.

Chlorith was keening again, but this time because she thought she had killed my twin sister.

"It takes more than a trampling dragon to get rid of her," I said softly. "Don't worry. She'll be okay. With any luck, she'll look like me."

"I'll hold off getting rid of the feathers until I see what happens to her," I told Dana. "We're twins! We do everything together."

The only time I left Tiffany's side was when Chlorith rose to mate three months later. Gyarmath flew her, of course, and another aspect of my transformation made itself known about five sevendays afterward. I was lying beside Tiffany in bed where I had kept vigil for over four months when I suddenly felt a cramp that seemed very much like a contraction.

"Huh?" I said aloud as it passed. "That's funny. I'm not supposed to have my period anymore. I'm too old."

Then I felt something fighting to come out of me. Instinctively, I pushed, too skilled at giving birth not to know when I was supposed to push, and a little something came out. I reached down with my hand and felt an egg-like shape.

"No way!" I shouted, forgetting Tiffany was asleep beside me. "No way, Jose!"

It happened again, and this time, I pushed with the cramp. Another soft egg made its appearance.

"Fucking A!" I cried.

G'narish came pelting into the room, possibly under the impression that Tiffany had reawakened. He saw the two eggs in my hands and took them from me for examination.

"I think I'm gonna lay another one!" I cried, panic-stricken.

"We need to know how long it takes for Avianis eggs to hatch."

I laid another and another until, finally, after three hours of doing something that only hurt as much as a bladder infection, I had lain 12 eggs.

"12 children!" I cried. "What the hell am I gonna name 12 children?"

"Six boys, six girls?" G'narish smiled through happy tears.

"I don't know," I said softly. "I don't know if the eggs have specific colors or not."

With the restoration of my optic nerve and my eyesight, I was still learning my colors.

"I see three golds, three greens," G'narish reported, pointing at each as he counted them, "two bronzes, two browns and two blues. Is that normal with Avianis eggs?"

"We need to ask Empyrea and Seraphea," I concluded. "Of course, they're young yet, but they should've seen eggs lain by now."

"No, that's not normal," Seraphea responded, "but you have to remember, your DNA got mixed up with a dragon's. Killashandra says she had switched the chemicals around in that P.U.M.A. so that, instead of killing you, it'd give you Avianis DNA so it would help her betray F-Lessa and give us back our rightful home. F-Lessa was not aware of the Eridani protocols because she thought all alien species were beneath her notice. She also didn't notice that the chemicals were switched in her P.U.M.A.s. She would've been furious at Killashandra for switching out the chemicals. The ones she had selected for the P.U.M.A.'s were akin to what the Nathis used 2500 turns ago, and they did horrible things to you. If you can think of Thread and multiply it by ten, you'd get these chemicals. They'd basically vaporize you in an instant."

"You're nine years old!" G'narish and I cried in unison. "How does a 9-year-old know so much?"

"We age intellectually long before we age physically due to our telepathy, just like the Skolrom," Seraphea replied. "We start laying eggs at 12, also like the Skolrom, but our parents don't usually condone us having sex until we're about 20. Then our emotions have caught up with our bodies and our intelligence. When we're young like me and Empyrea, we know we're not supposed to do stuff, but our emotions and curiosity get the better of us. For example, Empyrea knows she's not supposed to mix toothpaste with Agenothree, but she did it anyway and called it her science experiment. Raeana laid into her for that one."

She raised her voice in a magnificent impression of Raeana. "'You're supposed to be a dragonrider now! You're a big girl! You need to clean up that mess! I can't believe you did that! ...'"

"She has burns on her fingers to prove she did it," she said in her normal chirpy voice. "You do not touch Agenothree without wearing gloves! She knew that, but she didn't know why, and she wanted to find out."

"Perhaps I should go to Igen Weyr and take up raising you two," said a new voice, and Shandra entered the room. "Lemme see those eggs, Elli."

G'narish handed her each and every egg. I was unaccountably exhausted, seeing as I'd only been pushing out tiny little eggs. This was nothing compared to pushing out babies. Then, you were pushing a watermelon out of a lemon-sized hole. Now you had the same lemon-sized hole, but you were pushing out grapes. Not in the least bit tiring. So why was I so exhausted? All I wanted to do was sleep.

"No, these are not normal Avianis colors," Shandra confirmed G'narish's affirmation. "I think this is where your dragon DNA comes in. The P.U.M.A. attacked Holooth who, in turn, attacked you. The P.U.M.A.s are not programmed to kill dragons, as F-Lessa still revered them above all else, but they are programmed to use the dragons to kill the humans, Aquilans, the Kendites, the Skolrom, and the Aviani."

"Why would she want to kill humans?" Seraphea wanted to know.

"She was suspicious of the remaining Oldtimers and feared they'd be like the ones F'lar exiled to the Western Continent. She also thought humans were responsible for killing Mini Ramoth, when it was actually her actions that drove her _between_."

"But Mini Ramoth's back now." Seraphea said, still not understanding.

"I don't know who recalled her to life, but Dana destroyed the link she had with F-Lessa so that she could choose a new rider. That has never happened before in all the history of dragonkind. A dragon never went _between_ because of their rider's actions. I suppose you could argue that Lamoth from Elli's reality died in shame because his rider, G'lanar, was attempting to murder Lord Jaxom, but Lamoth only died when G'lanar committed suicide after revealing himself as the traitor to Lord Jaxom, Weyrleader F'lar, and Weyrwoman Lessa. Lamoth wasn't gonna stay alive when his rider suicided. That set another precedent. No rider has ever suicided independently of his dragon before G'lanar did it. Usually the rider mounts the dragon's back and they go _between_ together. And I will say that avenue crossed my mind many times before Elli rescued your sister. I thought I had accidentally left my blaster on vaporize, when I went to stun Chlorith. I was so nervous about betraying F-Lessa. I didn't know who would or would not side with me, so I saw any other dragonrider as a threat, but I didn't want to kill them if they could be with me. I also wanted to take riders who were fighting on F-Lessa's side and try to turn them over to mine. No one really liked F-Lessa, so I wanted to stun the rider and her dragon and shift them over to where I was supposed to meet the Aviani, but as soon as I fired my blaster, they were gone. I knew she had Empyrea in her talons, so I came to the obvious conclusion that Empyrea was dead."

It was absolutely amazing that Shandra said all that without losing her composure. She didn't even have to pause to take a few deep breaths. Now that she realized what she had seen, she was not only relieved, but grateful. She even laughed at herself for not weighing the options. She knew dragons could time it, but she never stopped to ask herself if that could have happened in this case. She smiled down at Seraphea.

"If there were another Weyr available for me and Minith, I'd join you in a heartbeat," she said, "but Raeana specified two weyrs, not three, so I have to stay behind and let her mother you the rest of the way."

She wiped away a tear.

"Mini Ramoth and Minith are so small, you could share a weyr." I suggested, holding my hand out for my twelve eggs. "Where do I put them? I don't think we have an incubator at Robinton Cove."

Shandra and Seraphea looked at me as though I'd uttered the f-word in front of a two-year-old.

"You stay with your clutch!" they cried in unison, as though I were the worst mother in the world for not wanting to stay with my eggs.

"How am I supposed to keep them warm without crushing them?" I demanded.

"You keep them in the crooks of your arms and cradle them to your chest," Seraphea replied. "That way, the babies bond with you from inside the eggs, and when they crack, they imprint on you."

"Like Impression?" I cried, thinking of Chlorith.

"Sort of," said Seraphea, "but more of a maternal bond."

"Was it a wrench to leave Angelica?" I asked.

"I miss her more than words can say!" said Seraphea. "She started as a young mother, only 12, because an uncle raped her. I was one of her first children, and I was born malformed."

"You were not malformed!" Shandra cried indignantly. "You had a growth problem which has since been remedied."

"I wish my whole family could come here from Tennin," Seraphea wept, drying her eyes with her palms.

"I can do that for you," I said. "You'd just have to give me an image."

"Oh no you don't!" shouted Shandra. "Your place is with your eggs! Since you're watching over Tiffany until she awakes, you can watch over your eggs at the same time."

"What about food?" I demanded.

I wasn't the least bit hungry, but I knew I would be in a few hours.

"You will not get hungry all through your eggs' gestation period," Shandra informed me. "Your body will allow you to stay put while you protect your eggs."

Already, I was starting to feel a strong pull toward them, which I was trying to resist, because I had other duties to attend to. I had patients, and I had to calm down Tiffany when she awoke. I could already see the feathers growing out of her hair. I knew the hair was disappearing and the feathers were growing faster than you could say abracadabra. No one knew what her eyes would look like yet, as they were closed, but I saw the shells of her prosthetics lying on her face. I took them and put them on her dresser. I returned to the bed and my eggs.

"What if I have to go to the bathroom?" I asked.

"You won't have to urinate or defecate until the eggs are hatched," Shandra explained.

"Precisely the opposite of a normal human pregnancy," I said.

Shandra laughed. She had children of her own and she could very well remember having to make mad dashes to the necessary because they were pushing down on her bladder.

"I'll coax your family to come and live on Pern, but I will not let them stay in my reality. I'll bring them here to Robinton Cove. Dana could use the healing powers of their wings in the hospital. And who knows, one of them could be found on Search."

"Isn't Robinton Cove getting overcrowded as it is?" asked a soft, sleepy voice.

"Twinny!" I shouted, jumping up and down on the bed. "You're awake! You're alive! Oh Twinny-twinny-bo-binny, banana fanna bo finny, fee fi Mo ninny, twinny!"

"What happened?" Tiffany demanded, her voice hoarse from disuse.

"A P.U.M.A. attacked you and Chlorith. She was trying to save you but you got trampled because that's what the pumas are programmed to do. They attack the dragon so the dragon hurts you."

"What did I turn into, Twin?"

"An Avianis like me, twin. I was supposed to get rid of the feathers, but I wanted to see what you'd do first before I underwent the transformation."

"Can you get rid of the feathers but keep the wings?" she asked.

"Yes, you can, but you also lay eggs for about a century."

"What?" she spluttered.

"I got 12 of them in my arms right now. Gyarmath flew Chlorith, and of course we had sex, so naturally he fertilized all 12 eggs. What the hell am I gonna name all of them?"

"How long till they hatch?" asked Tiffany.

"Four sevendays." I said, just as a raucous cry from the Feeding Grounds drew everyone's attention.

Rollith was rising to mate, and I had nowhere to go. I couldn't take my eggs _between_, but Chlorith had to go.

"I'll go riderless and see if Raeana can accommodate Killa," Chlorith bellowed from the heights.

"It's Shandra!" Shandra cried. "I'm not a killer!"

"You used to be called Killa," Chlorith argued.

"That was before I thought I killed Empyrea," Shandra protested. "Your rider came up with the suggestion of calling me Shandra. It made me feel a lot better about myself, so I'm sticking to it."

"Let's all go to Igen," Dana announced. "Then we can all have a good chin wag with Raeana."

"I can't go!" I shouted. "The eggs will die _between_!"

"You have pockets in your spacesuit; use them," Dana cried impatiently. "Come on, let's go!"

At Igen, Raeana was appalled by the new aspect of my transformation, but I was slowly beginning to get used to it. I kept the eggs safe in my spacesuit pocket the whole time I was there. Then I realized that I could keep the eggs in my pockets no matter what I was wearing, so long as it had pockets, and I felt so much better about the whole thing. I could eat, I could pee, I could be a normal person. Aviani didn't wear clothes because of the feathers, so they didn't have the solution of putting the eggs in their pockets. I decided, though I was in the South, to wear winter clothes so that the eggs would be even warmer than if I had worn shorts.

"I just don't want so many children that I lose track of them," I said. "But I name the girls, you name the boys, G'narish. They're your children, too. If I hadn't had sex with you, these would be period eggs."

"What're you gonna name them?" he asked.

"Meaghan, Ophelia, Charlotte, Lisa, Tiffany, and Dana."

"I don't agree with Lisa, but the rest are fine," he said. "Lisa reminds me too much of Lessa, and we have several riders here trying to forget F-Lessa."

"Olivia?" I asked.

"Olivia's a lovely name." G'narish said. "How about, Austin, Justin, Preston, Quentin, Ashton, and Robinton."

"What a tribute to the Masterharper!" I cried. "I'll call him Robby."

"Just please don't call him Bob," G'narish begged, blinking back tears.

"Don't worry, I won't," I said.

When we returned to Robinton Cove, Tiffany was in a right state. D'nag had insisted she take fellis juice after the mating, because she had been remarkably unresponsive during sex, but I knew what the trouble was. She was now an Avianis. She had wings and feathers. What would everyone think of her now?"

"It's okay, Tiff," D'nag said over and over again. "It's okay that you transformed. I don't care. I still love you! Your transformation was not your fault, and it can be reversed if you want it to be."

He gently wiped her tears away with the front of his hand.

"I'm just getting rid of the feathers," I said. "They get in the way of my clothes. I carry my eggs around in my pockets so I can bond with them and still do my normal duties. I have patients who'll only talk to me, so I gotta be there."

Can you get rid of the feathers and keep the wings?" Tiffany asked incredulously.

"I think so," I said. "Let's check with Dana. She's the queen of Eridani protocols. She'll know what you can and cannot do."

I hugged Tiffany tightly, kissed her tears away, and went to find Dana.

Chapter 16 – Some Painful Truths (Dana's P.O.V.)

I had a lot to think about.

First, there were the P.U.M.A.s. I had painstakingly perused every file from the healer-rider search and destroy teams. I had even enlisted AIVAS' help for the data review. On top of everything else, I went so far as to do a high-gain element scan with the spaceborne equipment aboard the Yokohama, the Bahrain, and the Buenos Aires, searching the entire surface of Pern for that telltale chemical signature that identified the volatile the P.U.M.A.s used.

"I'm sorry, Masterhealer," AIVAS apologized when the final analysis was posted on my screen. "I find no other evidence of the P.U.M.A.s beyond what the S&D teams uncovered."

"Then, how do you explain the one that attacked Chlorith?" I demanded, pounding the console.

A human might have hemmed and hawed at my threatening manner, but AIVAS simply replied, "I have none."

"Sorry, AIVAS," I apologized anyway. "Didn't mean to lose my temper like that."

"You are understandably concerned, Masterhealer," the machine instantly replied in its most diplomatic voice. "I take no offense."

"Thanks, AIVAS," I sighed, rubbing my tired eyes. "That'll be all."

The control screen went dark.

"Any luck, Dana?" Rill asked, laying a comforting hand on my shoulder.

I simply shook my head in the negative.

"Damn it!" she cursed under her breath. "We had been so careful, too, checking everywhere! How did we miss that one?"

I shrugged, rising from my chair. "I hate playing the Devil's advocate, but we could've simply missed one."

"Not a chance!" Rill argued, seizing my arm. "We had three-person search groups out looking for those damned things… all over the planet! Our overlapping scan patterns left no square millimeter of the surface of Pern unchecked. There's no way in Hell we could've missed even a single molecule of that volatile!"

"I know," I sighed, peering out the porthole at the splendid view of Pern that can only be seen from space.

I had gone up to the Yokohama so that I could run diagnostics on the shipboard scanners, the most powerful investigative tools at our disposal. In the three hours I had been onboard, I had run and re-run high density scans of the planet's surface, searching for that unique chemical signature that marked the deadly volatile the P.U.M.A. had used and turned up nothing. So where had the damned thing come from?

Then, a truly terrifying thought flashed into my consciousness, one that nearly caused my knees to give way.

"What's wrong?" Rill asked, a hand on my elbow offering support as I wobbled badly.

I didn't say a word. Instead, I went back over to the AIVAS console and turned the device back on.

"Masterhealer?" the device responded.

"Transdimensional teleportation, AIVAS," I spoke into the mike. "Can your sensors or those of the three colony ships detect it?"

"Wait! What?!" Rill spluttered. "Is that even possible?!"

"Teleportation is one of the known esper talents," I explained, dreading what AIVAS was going to tell me. "We also know our dragons have manifested the ability of quantum ergokinesis… transdimensional travel. What if someone possessed both abilities?"

"Shards and shells!" Rill hissed. "You don't mean…"

I nodded, praying at the same time that I was wrong.

"Recent sensor logs register minor transdimensional fluctuations, Masterhealer," AIVAS reported.

"Specify!" I ordered. "When was the most recent occurrence?"

"Fifteen thirty six local Pern time," AIVAS recited, "occurring precisely eight months, one sevenday, and four days ago."

"Shaffit!" Rill cursed, pounding a nearby console with her fist. "Right after we did the planetary sweep for the P.U.M.A.s…"

"And right before that winged version attacked Chlorith!" I hissed.

"But why would she…" Rill stammered.

"It may not have been intentional," I argued, recalling my Academy psionics teaching. "We ran into plenty of examples of those who were 'gifted' who never realized it and inadvertently used those talents to the detriment of others."

"What'll we do?" Rill begged me answer.

"For now, nothing," I replied, shutting down the AIVAS link and heading for the door. "There are a few other things I need to work on before we proceed with any sort of action."

If my suspicions were correct, a lot of people were going to be upset. It would have to wait. There was other research I needed to do before I did anything about Elli's genetic mods.

And where did my research take me? To Igen Weyr where Shandra, Empyrea, and Seraphea had taken up residence with the other denizens of the weyr. Thanks to the efforts to relearn how to produce the power packs for the Ancients' sleds, they found an unexpected use redecorating Igen Weyr.

"Can't believe how easy it was to cut out a fresh set of weyrs for Shandra and Minith," Raeana confessed, watching as the dragon pair were decorating their new quarters, "once Master Fandarel realized the same power packs were used to power the Ancients' cutters!"

The heavy-grade laser cutters had made quick work of the basaltic granite that made up the cone of Igen Weyr, making it easy for Shandra and her charges to relocate to their new home. In fact, with just a little juggling of arrangements, Empyrea and Seraphea and their dragons were moved into quarters right next to Shandra's new home.

"Empyrea and Seraphea?" I asked, looking around the weyr bowl.

"Down in the healing room," Raeana replied, nodding toward the weyr bowl. "Their unique Aviani healing talents are proving quite a boon to the weyr!"

Nodding my thanks to Raeana, I made my way down to the floor of the weyr crater then across the expanse to where their healing facilities had been set up.

Empyrea was busy healing a rider who had been unfortunate to be scored during the recent Fall. Standing in the room's doorway, I brought out my med scanner, focusing on physiological scans of Empyrea as she was healing.

"Dana?" Seraphea spoke, tugging on my arm. "What's wrong?"

"Not a thing, sweetie," I assured her, smiling as I tweaked the scanner controls. "Just gathering some sensor readings about you and your sister. You two are the only Aviani among us. I want to make sure we have detailed readings of both of you when you are healthy so we have a better chance of healing you if either one of you comes down ill or is injured somehow."

Turning my scans on her, I knelt in front of Seraphea, asking, "What about you, sweetheart? How are you doing?"

"I wasn't sure what riding a dragon would be like," she confessed, hands clasped to her chest, "but I wouldn't change a thing! Tenith is so beautiful and understanding!"

_As it should be, lifemate,_ her dragon replied.

"Why is she so much bigger than Empyrea's dragon?" she asked.

"Because your dragon came from this reality, Sera," I replied, closing my scanner and rising to my feet. "Mini Ramoth came from your reality. Due to that timeline and the evolution of the dragons, they gradually grew smaller after that single Pass of Thread."

"Could you make her bigger?" Seraphea wondered.

"Possibly," I chuckled, laying a hand on her feathered shoulder. "The question is whether mini Ramoth would want to be bigger."

"But you know the Eridani protocols!" Empyrea's 'little' sister argued.

"True," I had to agree, "but that doesn't give me the right to arbitrarily make changes to a sentient being's genetic code."

Kneeling in front of the precious Avianis child, I took her hand, saying, "With great power comes great responsibility. Do you understand what that means?"

Sniffling back a tear, Seraphea nodded.

"Precious, precious child!" I whispered, my own tears falling as I gave her a hug. "Once an Eridani alters the genetic code of a living organism… plant or animal… they are obligated by their beliefs to follow the development of said organism for the lifespan of the one who did the alteration… and for a thousand generations after!"

Seraphea's eyes grew positively enormous.

"I may not be Eridani," I told her, "but I am obliged to follow that precedent since one of their kind imparted to me the enormous power and abilities manifest in the Eridani protocols."

Gulping back a sob, Seraphea hugged me back.

"There's another saying from old Earth," I went on, wiping some of her tears away. "Power corrupts… and absolute power corrupts absolutely. By virtue of what Concordantrix Zigrill has shared with me, I possess an enormous amount of potential power. But I am not an Eridani. I do not have their countless millennia of experience and teachings to guide me. I am merely human, and I pray every day that I don't fall victim to the power I possess. I must be very careful how I use what I have been given… or it could destroy me… and possibly those around me."

"Then why did she give you the knowledge the Eridani protocols contain?" Seraphea asked, her expression reflecting her confusion.

Shrugging, I said, "She trusts me to use it wisely. I can only hope that, with Time, I prove worthy of that trust."

Sniffling back a tear, a tiny smile coming to her lips, Seraphea replied, "You will. I know you will!"

That said, she added a very strong hug for emphasis.

"Sera, honey?" the weyr healer called, waving to her. "Can you help with this one?"

One of the kitchen staff had accidentally gashed a hand preparing the midday meal. As Seraphea used her Aviani healing power to mend the cut, I used my med scanner to take sensor readings during the procedure. There was something about both her healing and the one Empyrea had performed that had caught my eye, something that potentially could destroy Elli's and Tiffany's plans to be rid of their feather coverings.

Goldie winged in at that precise moment, backwinging to my shoulder as I continued to scan Seraphea as she healed the weyr kitchen staff member.

"Coo?" she trilled, intently interested in what the scanner was showing.

"I'll need to run these latest scans through AIVAS' data analyzer," I whispered as I shut the scanner down and put it back in its holster. "Let's go."

"Something wrong?" Tarnaa asked aloud as I was climbing onto her neck ridge and belting myself in.

"Maybe," I sighed, thumping her on the neck. "We need to get back to Landing."

"No sooner said," Tarnaa replied, leaping skyward, her great gossamer wings carrying us higher with each stroke, "than done."

The three of us vanished _between_.

At Landing, I locked myself in the main AIVAS room. What I was analyzing could potentially be devastating, and I didn't want the word to get out prematurely before I had finished my investigation.

Hours later, Goldie, Tarnaa, and I returned to Robinton Cove. My two companions chose to go play in the surf while I made my way into the hospital. Conversations among the staff as I made my way along the hallways to my office inexplicably faded to silence as I passed.

Rill and Ryeena came running in, alerted by the staff that something was definitely amiss with me.

"Dana?" Ryeena was the first to speak, laying her hand gently on my shoulder.

I was sitting at my desk, arms folded on its surface, my head resting atop them, the gathered scan results spread out before me on the desk.

"Dana, what's wrong?" Rill asked, her own hand coming to rest on my other shoulder.

"Dana, talk to us!" Ryeena begged, squeezing my shoulder. "You're scaring me!"

Slowly, deliberately, I lifted my head, easing myself back in my chair.

"Ancestors, this is going to hurt a lot of people," I muttered, shaking my head, my heart aching with the knowledge I had uncovered.

"What are you talking about?" Rill wondered, clearly concerned.

Meeting the eyes of my friends, I told them, "I know where that flying P.U.M.A. came from."

"What?!" they both exclaimed.

I nodded.

"How did we miss it?" Rill demanded, frowning in confusion. "I was sure we…"

"I'll explain everything," I told her, holding up my hand begging for patience, "but first, we have to get Elli, Tiffany, and the others here."

"Why?" Ryeena asked.

She fell silent the moment our eyes met. Tears began to form in her eyes as she picked up the sat phone on my desk and called Honshu.

Within the hour, the necessary parties were gathered in my office at the teaching hospital at Robinton Cove.

"So, what the hairy heck is this all about?" Elli wondered, rearranging herself in the chair to accommodate her wings and the clutch of eggs she was carrying.

"That P.U.M.A. that attacked Chlorith?" I responded, tapping my desk with the tip of my finger.

"What about it?" Tiffany demanded, doing her best to get comfortable in her own chair, her own eggs cradled closely to her.

"How did we miss it?" Rill wondered.

"We didn't," I replied, my gaze never leaving Elli.

"You must've!" Elli argued, unconsciously extending her wings in anger.

I shook my head. "Up until the moment of the attack on Chlorith, there wasn't a single P.U.M.A. anywhere on Pern… on this Pern."

"That makes no sense!" Tiffany exclaimed, her own wings unfurling.

"Wait!" G'narish chimed in, catching the last part of my statement. "This Pern. Are you saying that thing came from F-Lessa's world?!"

I nodded.

"How the hell did it get here, then?" Elli demanded.

"You brought it here, Elli," I replied, my expression grimly serious.

"No way!" she exploded, leaping to her feet. "No way, Jose! Not in a million years! Why the hell would I do that?"

"You wanted Tiffany to be just like her twin," I explained, grimacing at the pain this knowledge was causing. "So, you brought the P.U.M.A. here."

"Are you out of your fucking mind?!" Elli roared, leaning on the front of my desk, her face livid with the rage she felt.

"Calm down, Elli," I quietly spoke, my hands raised asking for patience. "Give me a chance to explain what I suspect … and what I found."

"Explain?!" she shouted, pounding the top of my desk with her fist. "You just accused me of trying to kill my twin!"

"Have I?" I calmly responded, meeting her furious gaze.

"Twin, chill!" Tiffany ordered, seizing Elli's shoulder. "She's right."

"Tiffany's right, love," G'narish added, seizing her other shoulder.

"So, how did she bring the P.U.M.A. here?" Moreta wondered.

"Transdimensional teleportation," I replied.

"Wait, what?!" Elli spluttered. "That's not possible!"

Touching a few controls on my desk's computer console, I activated the holoprojector and called up the Yokohama's sensor logs. "According to the data AIVAS was able to recover from the Yokohama's sensor logs, there was a brief instance of transdimensional teleportation just before the P.U.M.A. appeared. Up until that point, there had been no other sensor readings of the devices anywhere on Pern."

"Wait! Are you saying I called that damned thing here?!" Elli stammered, clearly disbelieving. "Why? How?"

"I am convinced it was quite by accident," I assured her. "Consider this. Up until the time we met the Skolrom, you had never manifested any sort of psionic ability, had you?"

"Well, no," Elli had to admit.

"You've never had time to practice those abilities," I went on, "to refine and perfect your skills."

"I don't…"

"And, then, there was Holooth," I continued, "attacked by that first P.U.M.A.. You were severely injured in the trampling, his blood comingling with yours…"

"Like what happened with you and Wirenth!" Ryeena exclaimed.

"Because of that fusion of DNA, you inherited the dragon's ability of quantum ergokinesis… the ability to move between realities," I spoke, my gaze never leaving Elli. "And because of your constant presence around the Skolrom, you inherited many of their psionic abilities… including telekinesis and teleportation."

Elli gasped, a hint of realization coming to her face.

"Finally, while using your Kolrom healing abilities on those riders F-Lessa had drugged with the psychotrops," I told her, "I think you may have picked up memories from one of them that showed where the P.U.M.A.s were stashed."

"Are you saying Twinny here was responsible for bringing that P.U.M.A. here?!" Tiffany gasped, clearly disbelieving.

"Purely by accident, of that I am totally convinced," I replied. "As I said, Elli is completely inexperienced in the use of her new powers. She's never been shown how to use her gifts."

I rose from my desk, coming around to take Elli's hands in my own.

"During my time in the Star Service," I told her, squeezing her hands in reassurance, "I saw many examples of this sort of thing… individuals gifted with different psionic abilities… dying when they inadvertently teleported themselves partially through a wall, crushing their friends beneath a multi-ton vehicle while they were showing off their TK ability, or frying a stranger's brain while attempting to read their minds with telepathy."

"Dana, I…"

"I know how much you care about your twin, Elli," I said, my gaze flicking back and forth between them. "She's your twin. You wanted her to be like you… in all things. I believe it was your subconscious mind that triggered the transdimensional teleport… combining your dragon-based ergokinesis, your TK abilities, and the location knowledge you accidentally gleaned from that rider to bring that winged P.U.M.A. here, setting in motion the same sequence of events that brought about your own change."

"Sharding hell!" G'narish hissed.

Tiffany threw her arms… and her wings… around her twin, hugging her tightly.

"It was all just a damned accident!" Elli sobbed. "Twin, I…"

"Not a word!" Tiffany growled. "Dana's right. It wasn't your fault. None of us have any real experience with these new abilities. Mistakes are bound to occur as we learn to master them. We'll just have to be more careful from now on."

"There's more," I muttered.

"More?!" Tiffany and Elli exclaimed in perfect unison.

I nodded.

"You had asked me to research the Eridani protocols," I said, taking each by the hand, "to see if there was a way to modify your genetic coding to remove the feathers on your wings and arms. Remember?"

They both nodded.

"I've come across a complication," I sighed, meeting their eyes. "Empyrea! Seraphea!"

The two Aviani children, their guardian Shandra right behind them, entered the room.

"What do you know about your feathers, girls?" I asked, releasing Elli's and Tiffany's hands to turn their way.

"Our feathers?" Empyrea responded, her expression registering her confusion.

"We've always had them," Seraphea added, glancing over at her sister. "Is there something wrong with them?"

"I've asked a special visitor here to explain," I replied. "Please come in!"

The two Aviani children recognized the new arrival instantly.

"Mother!" they both exclaimed, running to embrace Angelica.

"I'm so happy to see you again, little ones!" Angelica wept, wrapping her two children up in her wings.

"But, I don't understand!" Empyrea sobbed.

"Why are you here?" Seraphea wept.

Angelica looked straight at me. "You've a keen eye, Dana. Many others have witnessed our healings. Only a rare few understand the truth."

"What's she talking about?" Elli demanded, seizing my arm.

"The feathers," I replied, meeting Elli's gaze. "They act like the antenna on a radio, broadcasting the healing energy every Aviani possesses."

"Oh, my God!" Ryeena gasped, making the connection. "Take away the feathers…"

"And you take away the Aviani ability to heal!" G'narish finished for her. "By the First Egg!"

"It's worse than that," I sighed, shaking my head.

"What do you mean?" Rill wondered, clearly concerned.

"If I take away the feathers," I explained, tears forming in my eyes, "Elli and Tiffany would no longer have any way to imprint on or nurture their eggs. And, because the Skolrom and Aviani are so closely related, the alteration of their genetic code could end up removing the healing ability they each inherited from the Skolrom!"

"Shards and Shells!" Moreta hissed.

"We can still do the procedures… if you want," I sighed, once more taking Elli and Tiffany by the hands. "I just wanted you to fully understand what the results would be."

"But you saved Zeeu!" Elli wept, not totally convinced.

"Yes, I did," I admitted, tears starting to fall, "and it cost her all the skills she had as a Kolrom, forever turning her into a human."

"I don't care!" Zeeu cried out, pushing her way through the crowd, wrapping me up in a desperate, trembling embrace.

"Sweetie, I…"

"I would have died if not for you," she sobbed, hugging me tightly, "Mama."

I felt a hand on my shoulder. Turning, I found Seeoru and Kaatee standing there, grinning proudly.

"It is a true bond, my friend," Seeoru remarked, nodding.

"You did what any true Gelu would do to save their child," Kaatee wept, smiling as she planted a kiss on my cheek. "Thank you, Gelu."

My heart melted as I looked down into Zeeu's beaming human face, more tears falling as I returned her embrace.

"Angelica?" I managed to say around a throat choked with emotion. "Would the Aviani be willing to foster Elli's and Tiffany's eggs… if they decide to proceed with the removal protocol?"

"It is something we have never faced before," Angelica replied, brows furrowed as she pondered the concept. Smiling as she looked at Elli and Tiffany, she added, "You and your kind saved us from that mad woman. Our people will do all we can to help you in this."

"It's up to you now, Elli, Tiffany," I said to them, once more giving Zeeu a hug. "It's a difficult decision. Take all the time you need. Talk it out with your families and friends. When you've decided, come find me. Okay?"

Silently, both Elli and Tiffany nodded.

Chapter 17 – Acceptance (Elli's P.O.V.)

I needed to get away. I needed to be alone. Most of all, I needed to cry. I had nearly killed my own dragon and had modified my twin's body so drastically that it could not be changed. I teleported to my room, flung myself on the bed, and began to weep, so full of self-pity, that I didn't notice the tentative arms around me. I sobbed, screamed, kicked and punched at the bed. I grabbed the feathers on the top of my head and yanked them out. I had never cried like that before in my life, but today seemed a good time for that first.

"Elli?" G'narish's voice rent me out of my feather pulling.

I turned my head to look at him, realizing the arms around me were his, and that he was also shaking with sobs.

"Go away!" I yelled at him. "Leave me alone! I'm not fit to be alive! I nearly killed my dragon and my twin, the two most important beings in my life! How could I have done that?"

"It wasn't your fault," G'narish said in a shaky voice that also sounded like he had a bad head cold. "It was a subconscious act. You wanted Tiffany to experience the same thing you were experiencing. You didn't mean it to happen. You wanted someone else to share your pain and your joy, and you obviously felt that Tiffany was the best person to share it with. I wish a P.U.M.A. would attack me so I could turn Avianis. I don't even know what our children will be when they hatch."

"I didn't even want any more children," I confessed. "I was afraid I'd lose track of them. Shells, G'narish, how the actual fuck am I gonna raise 12 babies? Gabriel and Linda are just reaching preschool age, and Paul and Ezra are starting to become toddlers. I can't very well raise 12 babies on top of all that!"

The feather pulling began again, but G'narish grabbed my hand and yanked it away from my feathers.

"You'll need those when you heal people," he said mildly.

"I have Kolrom powers, too," I said.

"But they may have merged with your Avianis powers, making you even stronger than you were with just the Kolrom gifts."

"I wouldn't want to lose my healing powers," I said grudgingly. "I've gained a reputation for healing with psionic powers. I'm as bad as Holoo-Ro. I can't control myself!"

"Perhaps if you went to Seeoru or Kaatee for training, you'd be able to control yourself more," said G'narish, even more mildly. "I'm going to do that, because I, too, have received powers from the Kolrom. They're probably not as strong as yours as you have the power of two races in you, but I can still telepath and teleport, and I definitely can empathize. Your pain woke me out of a sound sleep. Last night with Paul and Ezra was terrible, and as you're guarding your eggs, I couldn't bother you."

"I'll keep the feathers, as much as it bothers me," I sighed. "I guess it's just something I'll have to get used to. But I'll wear clothes over them when I'm in clutch so I can go about my daily duties instead of just lying there like I did on Earth. Just let me weep awhile on your shoulder. I didn't think you'd be this understanding. You're a human, and I don't know what the hell I am now. I wasn't born Avianis but I am one now. I just wish I knew how I set that P.U.M.A. on Chlorith, my own dragon!"

I cried, breaking down again. G'narish held me as he, too, wept. I didn't know why he was weeping, but somehow his tears soothed me. Usually it has the opposite effect if someone starts crying because I am. Was he soothing me? I felt the warm heat that Kolrom love and acceptance brings, but there were no Skolrom in our private bedroom.

"Is that you, Narish?" I asked, my voice full of incredulous joy.

"What?" asked G'narish.

"Healing me?" I asked, wiping the last of the tears from my eyes.

"I didn't know I was doing that!" he said. "This is my first time."

"How does it feel?" I waited with bated breath for the answer.

"Like I'm radiant!" G'narish cried, the joy evident in his voice. "I'm radiating healing powers and they're working. I feel the heat going from my chest into yours."

"That's exactly how I feel," I breathed. In a side note, I added, "I also think my milk is coming in."

G'narish pinched my nipples and felt a drop of liquid spirt into his fingers.

"Yes, it is! The eggs will hatch soon."

"I was hoping my clutch would hatch simultaneously with Chlorith's," I said. "That'd be a sight."

"I don't think all Pern should be invited to their birthdays," G'narish solemnly remarked. "That's putting the Aviani in a bad position."

"I really hope Angelica Impresses a queen," I said. "Then she could stay on Pern and watch her children grow up."

"And what'll happen to the rest of the children she has back home?" G'narish wondered.

"Go back for them and bring them here," I cried, radiance bouncing all over me. "We really should go to Igen and visit Raeana, but I want to check with Tiffany first and see what her decision will be about the feathers. I guess I'm resigned to cleaning up the floor and furniture when it comes time for me to molt."

"Me, too," said a resigned voice in the doorway.

There stood Tiffany, clutching her cane and her eggs in one go.

"You really could wear clothes, Tiff," I said. "That's what I'm gonna do every time I'm in clutch."

"They're too uncomfortable on my feathers," Tiffany complained. "They itch!"

"I wonder if dragon oil will work on itchy feathers," I said.

"Greased lightning," my twin responded.

"It would make your feathers quite glossy," I commented. "Let's try it. It's like using gel on your hair."

"Since Seeoru healed me of the cancer and joint pain, I can clean up my own mess when I molt," Tiffany commented. "But I had to take off the clothes. They were having a fight with the feathers and the feathers were winning."

"Totally understandable," I said, "but I'm not gonna sit there like a vegetable while I'm waiting for my clutch to hatch."

I reached out a hand to scratch my stomach where my pocket bulged.

"I don't think my children really like being eggs," I said wryly.

"Do you feel them moving around in the eggs?" Tiffany asked. "I feel mine."

I shifted uncomfortably. Tiffany had also undergone eye surgery to replace her 4000-year-old prosthetics for the bionic version. There were no shells in these prosthetics, just plastic balls with sensors inside them that would detect objects and present images to the brain. We were not at all sure they would work, but so far, she had had no problems with them. She adjusted to her newfound sight even worse than I had. She had only undergone the surgery for me. She really hadn't wanted sight for herself. The balls were so far back in Tiffany's eye sockets that you couldn't take them out. Dana had sewn skin over them to make sure they were secure. They weren't like the old glass eyes that you could take out of your sockets and scare the ever loving bejesus out of your friends. They even moved like real eyes, because Dana had skillfully connected the balls to her eye muscles. She still used her cane to get around because she wasn't sure of what she was seeing. My efforts to teach her were fruitless, because I was still learning myself.

"Let's tell Dana our decision, then go to Igen Weyr to see Rae and the Aviani," I said.

There was a knock on the front door. I ran to open it, G'narish's healing washing all my self-pity away.

"Who is it?" I asked cautiously.

Lately we'd been getting strange visitors who wanted to gawk at me and Tiffany.

"It's me," Dana called through the peephole.

I gladly opened the door.

"I thought you were another one of those visitors who just want to stare at me and my feathers," I complained. "Tiffany's been getting them, too."

"I know," Dana solemnly replied. "I'm trying to stop it so that you two can have some privacy, but so far, no go. They've been gaping at Seeoru and Kaatee when they're not camouflaged, too."

"People from this reality are not used to aliens," I said. "I hate to say it, but there will probably be some prejudice against us."

"It's like having a disability all over again," Tiffany said. "Now they're staring at me because I can see when it used to be the other way around."

"I don't want you to ever be bullied again, Twin!" I cried, throwing my arms and wings around her. "You were bullied enough in high school, and I was too engrossed in Kristin's drinking parties to care."

"I forgive you, Twin," Tiff said, enfolding me in her feathery wings. "And that reminds me."

She continued to Dana.

"I'm keeping my feethers," she said, definitely in a joking mood since we had contacted each other with our wings.

The wings were definitely symbols of power, and if anybody clipped them, we'd be in serious trouble. Something told me that was used as a temporary punishment on Tennin. It was only temporary because wings could grow back, just like on a bird. Instead of executing criminals, they'd chop off their wings so they would lose all their power. I didn't know how I was getting all this information, but it was flooding through me like water through a sewer.

"I'm guessing the wing feathers are the strongest?" I asked Dana, ignoring Tiffany's deliberate mispronunciation of the word feathers.

I knew why she had said it that way. The old Braille 'n Speaks we used to use pronounced it feethers instead of feathers. They mispronounced a lot of words. My file was overfull of words, and if you put too many in it, it would start speaking gibberish.

"Yes, the wing feathers are the strongest," Dana replied, "but all feathers contribute to the healing and imprinting processes."

"So what I've been doing, enfolding people in my wings, is the right way to do it?" I asked.

"I believe so," admitted Dana. "That's how I witnessed Empyrea and Seraphea doing it."

"I'll just have to be resigned to cleaning up messes every time the seasons change," I muttered in a resigned voice. "I don't want to lose my healing or imprinting powers."

"If I were human, I'd help you," Chlorith called from her sandy wallow.

"I know you would, my precious darling love," I spoke softly.

I didn't know if she could hear me at that volume, but I knew she could sense my telepathic sentiments.

_Can we race now?_ Chlorith switched to telepathy.

I wanted to go to Igen and visit the Aviani girls to see what I can learn about my new race. I wanted to see if that telepathic information about punishments is true.

_Will you ride me or will you teleport on your own?_ Chlorith wanted to know.

_Darling, you're egg heavy. You need to stay here so that you don't damage your children._

_I can still go between,_ Chlorith whined.

_Not with your stomach bulging you can't,_ I replied. _I won't stay the night. I'll be back in a couple minutes. If you need me, send a telepathic summons and I'll come right back._

_You hate being interrupted_, she reminded me.

_I know, but if it's you, I will respond right away. You know I will._

_Okay_, Chlorith resignedly spoke.

I grabbed G'narish's hand and teleported right out of the room to Igen and the Aviani.

Chapter 18 – The Surprising Draconic Choice (Dana's P.O.V.)

Elli's transformation was remarkable in its own right, I had to admit. Still, was she a true Avianis… or simply a hybrid? I was leaning towards the latter. After all, she had been born human, and it was the human Elli who had Impressed Chlorith. It wasn't until our transdimensional sojourns had started that we became exposed to other alien species; myself the notable exception, thanks to my time in the Star Service.

The incident that had precipitated Elli's transformation bore many similarities to my own experience with Wirenth, but it was also cause for concern since we were entering unknown territory. Despite AIVAS' extensive, nigh inexhaustible medical records, we had no experience caring for a being like the Aviani; complicated somewhat by the transdimensional nature of the species in question. We would have to proceed with the utmost caution and care in this endeavor.

There was one thing I could do to put Elli's mind at ease. Molting, the shedding of feathers, the thing that seemed to bother her the most, was not something that happened all at once or frequently. Using Earth adult birds as a point of comparison, they typically molt at least once a year, occasionally more frequently. It is generally a slow process as birds rarely shed all their feathers at any one time. They must retain sufficient feathers to regulate body temperature and repel moisture. The number and area of feathers that are shed varies. In some molting periods, a bird may renew only the feathers on the head and body, shedding the wing and tail feathers during a later molting period. So, Elli didn't have to worry too much about creating frequent messes.

The feathers, however, might also present a different problem… swimming; something Elli liked to do. Feathers on a bird were a necessity to regulate body temperature and repel moisture. Constant soaking in water, including the salty sea water of the Cove, could be detrimental to Elli's and Tiffany's health. If the preen oil on the feathers, which acts to repel moisture… such as falling rain, were to wash off from immersion in the water, they would also lose their insulation properties, posing a potential risk to Elli and Tiffany from excessive heat loss.

I had plenty of questions to ask. Fortunately, our recent visitors, especially Angelica, were able to provide the answers. To aid that knowledge gain, I called a meeting of all concerned parties in the den of my Robinton Cove home.

"You needn't worry about the frequency of molting, Elli, Tiffany," Angelica explained. "While your Earth birds might only molt once a year, because the Aviani are so much larger and more developed, we molt far less frequently."

"Shit, but that's a relief!" Elli sighed, giving her twin's hand a gentle squeeze.

"And you are right to be concerned about swimming in the ocean, Dana," Angelica went on, nodding to me. "Such prolonged immersion removes the protective oil from our feathers, drastically reducing their insulation and water repelling abilities."

"What about showers?" Tiffany wondered.

"Limited ones," Angelica replied, giving Tiffany's hand a gentle pat, "for the same reasons as swimming. We have, however, developed a spray-on conditioning oil, much like the preen oil of your Earth birds, that help restore their water repelling properties."

"Is it a synthetic oil," I wondered, "or something derived from a natural source?"

"Plant-based," Angelica confirmed. "We'll need to see if the same plants are present in this reality. If not, we can try and grow some of the plants here so that you can produce your own oil."

"Plants in this reality are routinely exposed to the ravages of Thread," Ryeena sighed, her excitement deflating a bit.

"We'll look anyway," Moreta chimed in, trying to brighten the mood. "Those plants may harbor medicinal properties, as well."

"Actually, they do!" Angelica remarked. "We extract the oil by running the plants' root balls through a press. Then, if you boil the plants long enough, you can extract a salve that has excellent topical pain-killing properties."

"Shards, that sounds just like numbweed!" Rill exclaimed.

"Any chance it looks like this?" I asked, calling up an image of the numbweed plant from this reality on my portable holoprojector.

"By the skies above!" Angelica gasped, hardly believing the possibility. "That's it! How can this be?"

"Well, technically, both worlds are Pern!" Elli chuckled, shaking her head in disbelief. "Who'd'a thunk that miserable stinking plant would also be the source of the oils Tiffany and I will need for our feathers!"

"Well, the plants may look the same," I cautioned everyone, "but the different realities may have caused some evolutionary changes. Angelica, can we count on your help checking them?"

"Of, course!" she replied, grinning. "Besides, I'll need some time in this reality to get to know the dragons that have bonded with my children."

"I still can't believe Tenith came all that way just to find me," Seraphea sighed, sending loving thoughts to her lifemate just outside.

"You think you're surprised!" Ryeena laughed, recalling the moment I had laid out my outlandish suspicions about Chlorith's missing queen egg.

"Wouldn't it be something if you Impressed one of the dragons from Chlorith's latest clutch?" Empyrea sighed, giving her Mom a hug.

That was when I became aware of a conspicuous lack of mental contact from the dragons who had been just outside. Almost as soon as we became aware of the faint humming dragons make at Hatchings, I got an urgent call on the sat phone!

"Dana, hurry!" Audiva frantically called. "The eggs!"

"We're on our way!" I replied as I bolted out the door, the others following close behind.

We barely reached the Robinton Cove Hatching Grounds in time to see the first few eggs split open, spilling the dragonets out onto the sands.

"This way!" I directed, leading Angelica up into the nearby tiers where we could watch events unfold.

Pretty soon, we were all caught up in the Hatchings, not knowing which way to look there was so much going on. Cheers rose all around us as each dragon and rider paired off. The second of Chlorith's queen eggs split neatly down the middle, the little queen crying out as she fell backwards awkwardly on the sands.

Right next to me, out of the periphery of my vision, I saw Angelica slowly rise. As I turned, I could see that her gaze was fixed on the little queen, one hand slowly rising toward the dragon. The little queen turned, as if sensing her scrutiny. The moment their eyes met, I heard Angelica's muffled sob, knowing full well what it meant.

"Go!" I urged her, nodding towards the sand.

"But…"

"Go!"

Swallowing a lump in her throat, Angelica made her way down the stairs to the sands. The little queen was there to meet her, her gaze moving from Angelica's face to her feathered wings and back. Those watching from the tiers looked on, amused, and surprised at the draconic choice, which could not be forced. Could not be questioned. Could not be changed.

_Lifemate!_ the little queen jubilantly trilled, closing the distance between them.

"I don't understand!" Angelica wept, kneeling in the sands to wrap her arms and her wings around the little dragon. "Of everyone here, why choose me?"

_Because you are the one I want, Lifemate,_ came the reply.

Sobbing, Angelica took the little queen's wobbling head between her hands, peering into the multifaceted, rainbow jewel eyes glowing blue-green with love. "Her name is Sorath!"

Bugles of ecstatic delight echoed across the sands from all the gathered dragons. Moments later, Seraphea, Empyrea, and their dragons arrived. Squealing with delight, Angelica's two children ran up, hugging their mother tightly, their faces abeam with love and understanding.

"What do I do?" Angelica begged.

"Don't worry, Mom," Empyrea replied, giving Angelica another hug.

"We'll help you!" Seraphea added, her arms wrapped around a bowl of meat for the newest hatchling.

Sorath finished off the bowl with ravenous dispatch, plenty of eager healer-riders hovering nearby offering assistance. A second bowl was provided. It, too, disappeared very quickly down the throat of the hungry queen. Then, Empyrea and Seraphea showed their mother how to oil Sorath's rapidly drying hide. Between the three of them, the little queen was gently, thoroughly oiled.

"Did you know?" Angelica asked.

I shook my head. "The dragon makes the choice. Just ask Seraphea about Tenith!"

Chuckling, Angelica hugged her daughters. "I'd almost forgotten that!"

Her expression confused, Angelica turned to me, saying, "I don't understand."

"Understand what?" I wondered.

"Why she chose me!" Angelica replied.

"Because you were the best one here, Mom!" Empyrea declared, hugging her tightly.

"But why would a creature who is born to fly choose a rider who can already fly?" she asked. "I don't understand!"

"I think Sorath chose you," mini Ramoth injected, bringing her head closer, "for that very reason… you already know how to fly."

"I still don't understand," Angelica sighed, shaking her head.

"Mother, don't you see?" Seraphea spoke, giving her mother's arm a hug. "You can teach your dragon everything you know about flying!"

"She has a point, Angelica," Tiffany remarked, laying a gentle hand on Seraphea's shoulder. "Human riders only experience flight once they bond with their dragons. But, as an Aviani, you have unique knowledge humans don't."

"As someone who already knows how to fly," Elli added, nodding along with her twin, "you will be better able to anticipate your dragon's movements. You are also lighter than a human, reducing the load on your dragon."

_I hardly even notice you!_ Chlorith complained, making Elli chuckle.

"Those are all valid observations, Angelica," I said to her. "Your knowledge and abilities will help get Sorath up to speed and in the air faster than we poor humans can."

_I can't wait to fly!_ Sorath chimed in, laying her fragile head right in Angelica's lap.

"How long will it be before we'll be able to fly?" Seraphea wondered, one hand on her own queen as she looked at her mother.

"For the smallest green, roughly six months," I replied, shrugging. "For the queens… nearly a full Turn. Sorry."

"But Empyrea's dragon can already fly!" Angelica pointed out.

"Rami was already full grown, Mom," her daughter explained, giving her diminutive lifemate a hug. "I'm just so happy that she chose me!"

"Your courage does you honor, youngling," mini Ramoth commented, rubbing her muzzle gently against the beaming child's face. "I only wish it had been you from the beginning."

"The Aviani were unknown to us at the time of your Hatching," I sighed, nodding agreement. "That reality's timeline would've certainly turned out far differently had we known about them."

To Angelica, I said, "Newly hatched dragons, in this reality, are the size of very large dogs or small ponies and reach their full size after eighteen months. Because young dragons grow so fast, their riders must regularly apply oil to their hides to prevent the skin from cracking or drying out."

"But what about the rest of my family?" Angelica nervously inquired, waving a hand skyward.

"Would the three of you, and your dragons, be safe back on Tennin?" I asked, my expression serious.

"After what that mad woman did to her people," Shandra grumbled, her expression full of sympathy for Angelica and her daughters, "not likely."

"But I can't just leave them there!" Angelica wept.

"That's okay, Mom!" Empyrea declared, patting mini Ramoth on the neck. "Rami and I can bring them back here!"

"What?!" she exclaimed, her face horrified. "You can't!"

"Rami is a full-grown dragon," I responded, smiling at Empyrea. "She already knows how to make the jump _between_ to your reality."

"And so do we!" Ryeena chimed in, coming up beside Empyrea. "With the help of the other healer-riders, we could bring your entire family back here!"

"And I know the perfect place for them," Elli added, smiling. "Honshu! Relatively isolated, plenty of room to move around in, and easily defensible, if needed. We'll have to speak with F'lessan and Tai, but I can't think of a better, safer place for your family, Angelica."

"And it doesn't have to be a permanent move," Moreta added, laying a hand on Empyrea's shoulder. "Just until your dragons reach their maturity. Two Turns, maybe less. After that, you can return to Tennin."

"Besides," I chuckled, patting Sorath on the neck, "if this oil plant you mentioned is the numbweed plant in this reality, it'll give you time to show us how to extract the oil our Avi-humans will need to care for their feathers. What do you say?"

Tears falling, Angelica gave her two girls emphatic hugs before saying, "Okay!"

Chapter 19 - The First Avianic Hatching on Pern (Elli's P.O.V.)

I lamented the fact that I could no longer swim or even take a bath, but once the oil was applied, (Angelica had brought a small bottle along with her), I felt cleaner than I ever did bathing in water. With Chlorith no longer in clutch, I had my own babies to worry about. They should have hatched before Chlorith's eggs had hatched, but somehow Chlorith's eggs had hardened remarkably quickly. I was worried about that, but all the dragonets seemed fine, so I shouldn't have worried. The pressing problem was now my eggs. There were 12 in all, which was the normal number for the Aviani, but would they all hatch?

The very next day after Chlorith's clutch had hatched, I heard the dragons thrumming again. Rollith had mated later than Chlorith because of Tiffany's transformation. No dragon in her right mind would rise to mate when her rider was gravely Ill. Therefore, her eggs shouldn't be hatching yet. Then I felt movement in my pocket. I screamed telepathically for G'narish. He must be here for this auspicious event. G'narish ran into the room.

"What's going on?" he demanded, stopping when he saw the movement coming from my tunic. Incredulous joy spread all over his face, he asked, "They're hatching?"

"Yes, my love, they're hatching!" I breathed, suddenly quiet.

I didn't want to disturb the babies. The eggs were the size of chicken eggs. I wondered just how small the babies would be.

"They're the right size for hatching," Angelica informed me. "They should be healthy."

"How am I gonna carry them around with me?" I demanded.

"In your wings," she matter-of-factly replied. "You shape your wings like a cradle and carry the babies in them. You can't fly again until they learn to walk. Then, when they get that down pat, you can teach them how to fly."

"Well, I'm used to walking, so that's no big deal," I said, "but I'm gonna need my arms to carry other things."

"That's why you carry the babies in your wings," Angelica said in a duh voice.

She was only 21. She had been raped twice, once when she was 12 and once when she was 16, so she was a single mother of 24 children. I could understand why she would want to be near them, but I could also understand the hostility of the Aviani if they brought dragons to Tennin. I also wondered what the three queens would do when it came time to rise. Mini Ramoth was used to mating with Mnementh, but Empyrea couldn't possibly have sex at this age and know the ramification that came with it. She was not yet of an age to lay eggs, so nothing would happen, but F'lar would be robbing the cradle. When my twins Impressed, Tiffany's twins had also Impressed, so they had choices when their queens rose to mate that would not be able to copulate yet as well. Empyrea and Seraphea would have problems. No, I reminded myself; Seraphea would be of egg laying age when Tenith rose to mate, but Ramoth had already mated with Mnementh dozens of times. What would happen if that natural urge came up?

"It's a girl!" G'narish screamed, bringing my attention back to the eggs. "What's her name, Elli, what's her name?"

"Meaghan, after Tiffany's role play character. She is the elder of the lead twins. Ophelia's the younger of the two," I said. "The next girl to hatch will be Ophelia, my role play character."

"What about the boys?" asked G'narish.

"Austin first. A comes first in the alphabet," I said in a duh voice.

"So you're naming the boys in alphabetical order?" G'narish demanded incredulously.

"Yes." I said.

"Here comes another one," G'narish spoke, effectively ending that part of the discussion.

The baby split the shell right down the middle, and a little boy popped out of the shell.

"Hello, Austin," I cooed. "Are you hungry? Do you want some food?"

"Here's another one!" G'narish cried. "This one's a girl, too."

I added Ophelia to my wing cradle.

"Am I doing this right?" I asked Angelica anxiously.

"Yes you are," she beamed at me. "It's instinctive the way we do it."

"Here comes Ashton," G'narish beamed.

"You don't even know if it's a boy yet," I scoffed. "It could break pattern."

But G'narish was right. A second boy split his shell down the middle and became Ashton. I added him to my wing cradle.

"How am I gonna feed them?" I wailed. "I only have two breasts!"

"With six nipples on each side?" Angelica queried.

"No.". I said. "I only have one nipple on each breast!"

"You might want to check that out again. Did you actually feel your breasts after you transformed?"

"The middle part of them, but not the top," I replied.

I surreptitiously went to pinch my nipples and found a surprise. Not only did I get splattered with milk, but there seemed to be six little dots on my breasts instead of one big nipple. I lifted the wing cradle up to my breasts and was about to try to nurse the babies when G'narish tugged at my hand.

"Oh no you don't!" he cried. "There's another one hatching. Wait till they're all hatched before you try to feed them."

"But they're crying now, and it's getting on my nerves!" I argued. "I love the sound of a baby's newborn cry, but only one at a time! Four is a bit much."

"Make that five," G'narish said joyfully.

I added Charlotte to my wing cradle and waited impatiently for the next shell to crack. Justin's shell shattered rather than crack, and I had to catch him in my arms before I could put him in my cradle. Two shells cracked simultaneously, and Olivia and Preston were hatched. I was amazed at how tiny the babies were. According to Angelica, they would grow with great rapidity in a Turn's time, so that when they were a Turn old, they'd be the approximate size of a human one-year-old. I didn't know how she knew this, but I didn't have the compunction to ask at that moment.

Tiffany and Dana hatched together. As did Quentin and Robinton. When my cradle was full, Angelica taught me how to nurse them. Soon their cries ceased altogether as they suckled my milk.

""You realize you're gonna want to radically change your diet," Angelica said. "Aviani are herbivores. Meat would actually kill us."

"I don't have a problem with meat," I said. "Perhaps your culture just says that so that you don't harm innocent animals. There are some humans in my culture that think the slaughter of innocent animals for food is murder."

"My sister tried that experiment," Angelica said in a low voice. "She died two hours after eating the meat rolls offered by one of the riders who was trying to take over Tennin."

"Perhaps the meat was poisonous," I argued. "A dragonrider offered it to her, the dragonrider was on the wrong side of the war, so perhaps he was practicing war by killing innocent Aviani."

"That's a fair point, but I'm still afraid to try it, especially when I'm on the world of my enemies."

"We are not your enemies; F Lessa was," I declared stoutly as I adjusted the little babes so that they'd be more comfortable as they ate. "I know the Skolrom don't eat meat either, because animals are telepathic, but I wouldn't be able to live if I didn't eat meat. Vegetables and I just don't agree on some points."

Angelica laughed.

"What points don't you agree on?" Dana chimed in.

"The points that corn and peas are no good!" I said stoutly. "I will never like corn or peas! I can eat hummus but not regular peas. They take the skin off the peas when they cook hummus. It's the skin I don't like."

"Sorath's calling me," said Angelica apologetically, taking flight to oil her lifemate's itchy hide.

"I don't know what I'm doing!" I whined to Dana, Tiffany and G'narish as, one by one, the babies all fell asleep in my wings.

"You're doing a good job so far," declared Dana confidently; "keep up the good work."

"You're a good mommy," Tiffany added. "You're gonna do what's right for those children, just like you are for your human children."

"But I have to do everything differently!" I cried passionately. "How am I gonna cope with 12 babies?"

"You'll do just fine!" replied G'narish impatiently. "Look what you've done for them so far?"

"Instinct," I whined.

"Exactly!" the three of them said in concert. "Just keep doing what you're doing now and you'll be okay."

I chuckled.

"Where are L'trel and D'nag?" I asked. "I did invite your weyrmates to come to the hatching."

"We're here." chorused the two men from the doorway.

"We thought we'd give the women some privacy while you nursed your new young," said L'trel.

"Tiffany's gonna go through it, too." I reminded them. "D'nag's gotta see it in person so that he can help his weyrmate through this crisis."

"And what about me?" L'trel grinned at me.

"You're a healer," I declared stoutly. "You should know all this stuff too."

L'trel grinned at me again.

"We're doing all the research we can on these people," he told me. "We don't know if there'll be any damage to the children, as there have been no hybrid mixes until the war."

"If I'da been forced to fight in that war, I'da betrayed Lessa much sooner than Shandra had," I mumbled.

"From what she said," Dana replied; "Shandra hadn't realized Lessa was in the wrong until she thought she had killed Empyrea. Then she went on the rampage and killed a bunch of riders and dragons."

"I did not!" Shandra cried passionately. "I stunned them and took their blasters away so they couldn't kill any more Aviani."

"What did they do when they realized what you'd done?"

"They put me in prison for the duration of the war," Shandra said off-handedly. "They really couldn't do anything to me, because they refused to kill me, as I had a dragon. If dragons got killed by Aviani, that was one thing; it was war, but if one of them killed one of their own side, that was a different story entirely. They did applaud me for killing Empyrea though."

By now, all the fledglings were asleep in my wing cradle. Unaccountably, I felt exhausted, as well. I hadn't done anything in this batch of births. Why should I feel exhausted?

"It's the telepathic connection to your babies," Angelica said, returning from oiling Sorath. "They're sending you their exhaustion, even when they sleep. You have imprinted on them, and they you."

"That's a relief," I said, rising laboriously to my feet. "I gotta get home. I wanted to see your children come, but I'm dead on my feet."

Suddenly, there was a flurry of activity outside the hospital doors. Approximately 24 voices could be heard… 24 shrill, children's voices. Angelica took flight, opening the doors wide to greet the remainder of her children.

"We've never been to Honshu before," said Empyrea contritely; "so we brought them here instead."

"We'll show you the way to Honshu," said Dana. "No, Elli, you go home and get some rest. You're gonna need it."

"Good night then, everyone," I yawned hugely and teleported right into my room.

I crawled into bed and was instantly asleep.

Chapter 20 – Quantum Jump (Dana's P.O.V.)

"Elli? Time to wake up!"

Muttering something under her breath, she pulled the sleeping fur up over her head and tried to go back to sleep.

"Wakey, wakey!" G'narish teased, tweaking one of Elli's toes. "You've got patients to see to later this morning."

"Just a few more minutes," Elli moaned. "And turn the light on! It's dark in here!"

"The light is on, sweetheart," G'narish spoke, his voice a little anguished. "You're blind, remember?"

"No, I'm not!" Elli argued, flinging the fur back as she sat up. "Holoo-Ro healed my optic nerve."

"Who?" G'narish wondered.

"Holoo-Ro!" Elli persisted, pounding the bed. "My Kolrom fosterling!"

"What are you talking about?" G'narish asked, puzzled by his soulmate's actions. "We only have the girls, Ari and Ori! A Kolrom fosterling?! Have you lost your mind?"

The ruckus the two made soon had their neighbors up, complaining about the noise. And why was Elli crying so appallingly? Why was she going on about losing her sight? She had been born blind! Everyone had heard the story by now.

It took G'narish nearly an hour to finally calm Elli down, aided by their daughters Ariana and Oriana. They were more than a little confused by their mother's distressing behavior.

Later that morning, cussing like a sailor, Elli came tap-tapping into my office, her body language giving all the impressions of an approaching storm.

"I was going to say, 'Good morning!', Elli," I cautiously ventured, "but I gather it has been anything but."

"You got that fucking right!" she spat, flopping down in a nearby chair.

Something told me this was a discussion that needed as few ears as possible to hear it, so I suggested we take a walk. Grudgingly, growling the whole time, Elli followed me out of the hospital and down the pathway that led to the pier where we interacted with our dolphin counterparts.

Glancing about to make certain we were alone, I said, "Okay, fill me in. What's eating you?"

Boy, did I get an earful! When Elli finally finished telling her mind-blowing story, several minutes passed in complete silence.

"I must be losing my mind!" she muttered, collapsing onto one of the benches on the pier. "I clearly remember Holoo-Ro healing my optic nerve! I clearly remember the feathers!"

Unexpectedly, the dolphin bell at the end of the pier began to ring. It was the 'Good Morning' sequence our dolphin assistants used to get our attention.

"Who's ringing the bell?" Elli wondered, her manner uncertain because of her blindness.

"Vee junn! Vee junn!"

"What was that?" Elli exclaimed.

Chuckling, I leaned on the railing of the dock, gazing into the waters beyond. "That's just Loki, one of the dolphin helpers in the pod stationed here at Robinton Cove.

Tap-tapping her cane as she went, Elli joined me at the railing. "What the hell is a vee junn?!"

Chuckling, I replied, "While all dolphins can speak, thanks to the mentasynth process, not everyone's diction is as good as ours. Hello, Loki! Good to see you!"

"Ell eee hab vee junn!" Loki squealed, bobbing her head up and down.

"What's she talking about?" Elli demanded.

"Vee junn," I repeated, lightly laying my hand on Elli's arm. "It's how she pronounces vision."

"But I'm blind, remember?" Elli muttered, her tone reflecting her bitterness.

"Not aye side," Loki corrected her, her tone insistent. "Vee junn!"

Elli mumbled something, possibly repeating what Loki was saying, then gasped! "Bloody hell! Not eyesight… vision! Is she claiming I had some sort of prescient episode?!"

"Vee junn!" Loki squealed, doing a powerful leap and backflip before diving back in.

"And not an ordinary one, either," I spoke. Chuckling, I added, "There are a lot of scientists, even in this day and age, who think precognition is pseudoscience. It is considered a delusion by mainstream psychiatry."

"What do you mean?" Elli wondered, her curiosity piqued.

"First, precognition would violate the principle of causality," I explained, "that an effect does not happen before its cause. Information passing backwards in time would need to be carried by physical particles doing the same. Experimental evidence from high-energy physics suggests that this cannot happen. There is therefore no direct justification for precognition from physics."

"Back in the late 21st Century," I went on, "the relatively new discovery of evidence for quantum retrocausality was sometimes suggested as a possible mechanism for precognition. However it is generally held that such quantum weirdness, even if it is shown to exist, cannot carry information at a macroscopic level."

"Meaning?" Elli muttered, tapping her cane on the dock railing.

"Sorry," I apologized, chuckling as I did. "I know that's a lot of geek-speak, but basically, according to the scientists, there's no way for the future information to be transmitted backwards to a time before the events occurred."

"And yet," Elli said, laying her hand on my arm, "we've seen evidence to the contrary. Your dreams, for example, the ones that drove you to seek out Pern in the first place."

"And let's not forget Ari's own prescient episodes," I added, giving Elli's hand a squeeze.

"So why is mine different?" she begged me answer.

"The vividness of your recollections," I replied, "seen as though you had actually been there to witness the events unfold. What you experienced may be something more akin to quantum jumping."

"What the billy-bob heck is that?!" Elli spluttered.

"Sorry, I'm geeking out again, aren't I?" I chuckled. "Let me see if I can make that simple."

"Please do!" Elli moaned, still uncertain.

"Quantum physics basically states that there are an infinite number of alternate universes," I began, gesturing to the dragons cavorting in the waves on the beach. "Quantum ergokinesis allowed our dragons to travel from one reality, one dimension, to another. Quantum jumping basically means an individual in this reality can connect mentally / spiritually with a version of themselves in an alternate reality."

"What?!" Elli spluttered, nearly dropping her cane over the railing.

"None of those things you described have happened here yet," I went on. "It might be a side effect of our dragons' quantum ergokinesis, the ability to cross dimensions to alternate realities. If some residual effect of those jumps opens up a channel to your future self, it's possible you would be able to recall what your future self witnessed and experienced. Wouldn't that in essence be a prescient vision?"

"Holy shit!" Elli whispered, her hands trembling.

"And now you have the augmented abilities because of your contacts with the Skolrom," I told her, patting her shoulder. "It may have caused an amplification of the quantum jumping effect, hence the vividness of your memories."

"But I've never had visions before!" Elli argued, turning away.

"You weren't around dragons before, either," I replied, laying my hand on her shoulder. "I think that Impression did more than awaken your telepathic abilities. It also facilitated your burgeoning prescient vision / quantum jumping ability, allowing you to receive memories from your future self."

"Dana, what do I do?!" Elli wailed, seizing my hands in her own. "About the visions, I mean?"

"Prescience is a two-edged sword," I sighed, giving her hands a reassuring squeeze. "Yes, it grants you unprecedented foresight, but by discussing it with me, you may have already altered how that future will turn out."

"Fucking hell!" Elli cursed.

"Calm down," I told her, chuckling as I added a hug for emphasis. "Maybe it will change that future outcome, maybe not. At least we have an idea what to expect."

"And can make better choices about the future," Elli remarked, smiling in spite of herself.

"Forewarned is forearmed, after all," I said, grinning myself. "Hard to believe this all started when I gave mini Ramoth the gift of dragon speech!"

Yes, it had indeed started there. And what about Elli's revelation that the Eridani, through Elder Concordantrix Zigrill, had bestowed upon me all the knowledge the Eridani protocols contained? Would I prove a worthy recipient of that awesome power? Even more concerning, what about the death of F-Lessa? Did we have a moral obligation to find a different place of incarceration knowing what would happen to her in the mines of Crom? And what about the revelation that humans, Skolrom, and Aviani may have had a common ancestor? That fact alone boggled the mind! The biggest problem with prescient visions… or quantum jumping, if you prefer… they never seemed to occur when you thought they would. Rather, they seemed to pop up at the oddest moments, almost as if they were trying to surprise you. Still, thanks to Elli's vision, we were alerted to what the future held in store for us. Now the only question was… did we have the courage necessary to face it head on?

_Absolutely!_ Tarnaa and Chlorith broadcast together.


End file.
